YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED....

[Battlecorals]

Those of you who are returning customers may have noticed recently that your frags came in without the "protection" of that little cup inside my regular shipping bag.

Well, the truth is I am not convinced that these cups are actually doing more harm than good. The idea of the cup is great. Mount the plug inside so that the frag stays relatively untouched in transit. However the longer I use these things the more I've come to think that they are not so great. The first reason being that in the multiple steps needed to prepare them for shipping, drilling holes, slicing X's to hold the plug and such, the potential for some kind of contamination I feel is pretty high. And, because I've felt this way since I started using them, I always wash them in tank water before they actually get placed inside one of my bags. Maybe this helps.I dont know. Pain in the butt though, but I'll get to that later.

The other issue I have with them is that I honestly think that the cup itself creates a pocket of water inside the bag that may not be ideal at all. Especially with smaller frags that dont stick out the top of the cup. To combat this quirk I started cutting larger holes in the sides of the cups and while I think it may have helped to some degree, I don't know that it was a solution.

Ultimately I think that I have had more frags come in DOA since I started using the cups. Whether its contamination or some sort of toxic pocket within the cup, I just don't like it. As little test, I decided to quit using them for a while and see if I notice any better results. Especially with some of the usual suspects that have done poorly often.


Now let me just say that I honestly hate these cups. They are a huge pain to make, take a ton of time to drill out and prepare. Going as far as inventing a machine to "pierce" the X's in the bottoms even. Works awesome by the way. But still a tremendous time eater. I even had custom plugs made because until I had these plugs designed with the cone shaped shaft, I'd regularly break frags while trying to insert them into the cup. Drove me absolutely nuts! Especially if it was a frag I only had one of that was shipping that day. So I mean the cups have mostly served as more of a means to "impress" the customer, more so than as a function of safety. At least in my experience. I personally hate these thing to no end.

Cup piercing machine

So where I’m going with all of this? What is the pointy of this post? Really just to explain that I am always trying to improve my situation over here with trial and error. And I really feel that these cups are not benefiting me enough to warrant continued use at this point. At least not until I get more feedback on how things are shipping without. So far so good I’d say.


So, when you get that order, and you maybe ask yourself why didn’t he use those cups like last time? I assure you it was not out of laziness or any thing like that. It's really just a continued effort to ensure that the frags you get are alive and well and in the best state they can be in when they are delivered. Any and all feedback is very welcome.

 

[CoralWealth]

very interesting. I will be following, I use those cups when I ship.

 

[jkcoral]

What about loosely wrapping the frag in a piece of plastic (the same type of material as the shipping bag)? Polyethylene I think?

I’ve ordered from a vendor that does this. Each frag is loosely wrapped in a little blanket. It seems to work really well. Over several orders, with some being 25+ frags, I’ve never had a DOA or damaged coral.

 

[Reefing102]

I’m curious are they dying while still in the cup or did the come loose? My thought is I know one vendor I ordered from actually used o rings on each side of the hole that seemed to really secure the frag plug down. Another thought, though more expensive, is maybe switching to drug test cups with flat frag plugs or plugs that had the stem cut? This is how a couple of my LFS receives them from their distributor

 

[Gtinnel]

I'd regularly break frags while trying to insert them into the cup

I’ve broke several getting them out of the cups.

 

[billyocean]

A flat bag with slits for the plug work well

 

[Ocelaris]

I agree they look impressive at first glance, but the only benefit I see is avoiding tip damage. But that's if the tips don't extend past the cup. But anyone who's gotten frags from Adam knows often they're big enough that they're bigger than the cup most times... So I am not sure it makes a huge difference in the end. It's not like the frags can move enough to scrape the sides of a smooth bag.

Size matters, only in as much as it's a healthy frag that's begun to encrust (and bigger frags do this more readily. If it's a fresh cut frag, I can see this being beneficial as the frag is less likely to come loose, but if it's well encrusted, won't matter.

I always break off the frag plug anyways, so the little damage that may have been avoided by saving newly cut frags some extra damage is miniscule compared to a well healed and encrusted frag. Summary, it may help some weaker or smaller frags, but it's small change in the big picture; with the caveat that most people receiving the frags won't make that differentiation.

 

[Battlecorals]

I’ve broke several getting them out of the cups.

The struggle is real my friend. Snapping my only Angelica frag off at the base while forcibly ramming the plug into the cup is enough to make me loose it. Believe me. I have often wondered if you guys had any issues trying to get them out as well.

 

[mfollen]

I think the cups make a much bigger difference for softies and LPS whereas with sticks it’s a different story

 

[Dilan Patel]

WHile it takes more time/effort you can use a small piece of foam, poke a hole that the stem slips through and wrap a rubber band on the bottom securing it in place. The buoyancy of the foam always keeps the frag suspended upside down in the water. I believe tidalgardens uses this method and seems like a good idea...But does take more time.

 

[REEFTIDE]

We absolutely hate cutting these cups. It feels like some sort of torture when I do it and when one of my employees does them I buy them lunch that day. BUT if we don't use the cups I feel that corals might get crushed in transit or move around too much :/
Just a suggestion though, we use a rotary tool to drill holes just slightly larger than the plug into the cups. We rinse in RO, let them dry, and use a rubber band to make sure the corals stay in place.
Its expensive, time consuming and really annoying but customers are trained to expect them at this point IMO

 

[ReefRondo]

WHile it takes more time/effort you can use a small piece of foam, poke a hole that the stem slips through and wrap a rubber band on the bottom securing it in place. The buoyancy of the foam always keeps the frag suspended upside down in the water. I believe tidalgardens uses this method and seems like a good idea...But does take more time.

Where I buy my corals here in the UK use this technique and it works incredibly well.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

The struggle is real my friend. Snapping my only Angelica frag off at the base while forcibly ramming the plug into the cup is enough to make me loose it. Believe me. I have often wondered if you guys had any issues trying to get them out as well.

Yes, I've had issues getting the frags out of the cups. At first I thought the cups were a great idea when my first frags showed up in them. Then, after struggling to get the frag plug out of the cup without snapping the frag off of the plug or having the plug shoot out of the cup because I pushed too hard, I've come to the conclusion that the cups may not be the best idea. I've never had a DOA with a frag that wasn't in a cup.

 

[DaneGer21]

I use cups also, I’ve broke so many frags pushing them in and pulling them out!

 

[Andrews_aquarium]

I’m all for less plastic, ditch the cups!

 

[Battlecorals]

WHile it takes more time/effort you can use a small piece of foam, poke a hole that the stem slips through and wrap a rubber band on the bottom securing it in place. The buoyancy of the foam always keeps the frag suspended upside down in the water. I believe tidalgardens uses this method and seems like a good idea...But does take more time.

lots of good imn put here so far. I've seen a lot of vendors do this with the foam as well but I still wonder about outside contamination in fact I am paranoid about this kind of stuff lol

 

[Cannoy]

The cup looks nice but i cant think of one time that not having a cup caused a problem. I think ditching the cup wouldn't be a problem. If it aint broke dont fix it.

 

[ninjamyst]

I hate those cups. It's a hassle to take frags out of it and we waste enough plastic already in this hobby.

 

[zuri]

mhhmm yeahhhh I get that you hate those but if you could go ahead mkay?

 

[shakacuz]

maybe going the styrofoam route? cutting a hole on a 1x1 piece of foam to float while inside the bag/cup? personally feel like this is a more feasible route.