Online Ordering During Winter

I haven't ordered much online before, and when I have the weather has been warmer, but I have it on good authority Santa is bringing some gift cards for online retailers. Anyone have any issues ordering fish and corals in the winter or is the packaging good enough to not have to worry about it?

 

It all depends on the weather. Indeterminable weather events can cause delays once the package has left the vendor, and it can get sketchy. It is a smart practice to check for any big storms prior to placing an order.

 

In my experience the sellers taped hand warmers on the lid in the Styrofoam boxes. I had a shipment in on Friday and it was done this way. Not sure how effective that is tho..the water in the bags were quite cold to the touch. Luckily I was home when the package arrived so I temp acclimated them quickly and everything survived.

I definitely agree with @DangerJ ; plan ahead

 

I have never had bad luck with the sellers, lots use heat packs and extra insulation. However I have lost a few shipments due to impromptu winter storms.

as Chief and Danger pointed out, good to check the ol weather channel before you pull the trigger on that spendy frag

Never had any issues with UPS, excellent in my book

I have had lots of delays with Fedex, might be my location. what I do is have the package sent to the nearest shipping center instead of my home or work address. seems like i get it faster and they always text when it arrives.

 

That all makes sense, thanks! My plan right now would be to check for storms both here and the origin facility and then be home to start acclimation right away. I like to buy local but I'm having difficulty finding the fish I want to add other than online; figured people had shipping year round figured out but appreciate the feedback!

 

anytime, best of luck

 

I ordered a cuc one year from reefcleaners, cuc they don't overnight, most showed up dead, they refunded me but still sucked Cus I put them in my tank and had to pick out all the dead ones. I would wait if it was me

 

Live aquaria is a good shipper and they guarantee for two weeks

 

Quality suppliers will check things out. Live Aquaria is great. That said, s*** weather still has an impact.

 

Depends on the seller. The ones I use normally check the weather before they ship.

Most use either cold or hot packs. Never get a shipment on Friday. If something is late then you’re not getting it till Monday.

 

Definity check on each individual seller.

Some have no guarantees if delays in shipping including storms. Find out who they ship through as Fed Ex goes through Indianapolis and they are notorious for bumping heavy boxes and blaming it on any snowflake in the air so they can get out of the claim as well.

If no shipping delays, there is usually no problem at all.

 

Pretty sure the card is for Live Aquaria, which from the sounds of it, is best case scenario given their 14-day return policy.

 

Words of advice from Live Aquaria

Great company.

If you order from Divers Den it comes from Wisconsin. Everything has been treated for diseases and parasites and is eating well.

If you order from LA, it just comes from Quality Marine and definitely needs to be quarantined and treated.

 

That is good to know! Thanks!

 

The only corals I have problems with during cold weather are sps. They can be touchy if water gets too cold even with heat packs.

Softy and Lps are alot more forgiving. Of course only if they are packed and shipped properly.

I won' order online when it gets down to single digits. I have never ordered fish online so I can't say on that. But I would assume they are about like sps.

 

My experiences with winter time shipping have been fine. I, personally, have my packages held at the local sorting center. This way it is not traveling around inside the truck for hours before I get it. And I can pick up around 8:00 A.M. and in my eyes that is a win-win.