What is the main reason corals die in transit?

[Ghost25]

Asking because overnight shipping is standard and quite expensive. My thought was maybe if temperature or even oxygen could be controlled by an electronic device, shipping could be done 2 or 3 day, and then the device could be mailed back.

Maybe a bit unrealistic, but I thought it could be a cool project.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Temperature too hot or cold leading to problems with metabolism and oxygen

 

[Idoc]

I think that electronic shipping device to control oxygen and temperature would be very expensive. Those shipping corals are probably shipping too many orders per day to make that economically feasible.

 

[littlebeard]

I saw an interesting video on this recently.



I don't ship any but I have ordered a few, and cold has killed a couple.... winter + delayed shipping = death. I'm guessing they likely sit out on the tarmac of an airport, in some unheated warehouse or van... by the time my corals arrived the water was upper 40's. And that was with a heatpack. I'm sure each location has their problems.

 

[Ghost25]

I think that electronic shipping device to control oxygen and temperature would be very expensive. Those shipping corals are probably shipping too many orders per day to make that economically feasible.

It depends on the functionality. For heating alone I think it could be built for $50. A couple 18650s, a Teensy microcontroller, a thermistor, and a low voltage heater. For heating and cooling you would need a Peltier, and a heatsink. Oxygen is more complicated, in part because the coral is typically sealed in a bag. But it can easily be generated by decomposing dilute hydrogen peroxide with silver.

Maybe not a device that make sense for a large company like WWC. But it might be feasible if a group like a club wants to mail stuff to each other, and participants put down a deposit.