[Alfredo De La Fe]

Hey Guys:

As many of you know, I used to be in the business. I used to do quite a bit of transhipping. If anyone is interested in getting together to place an order I would be willing, I would just need a ride to JFK.

Some "problems" we would face:

1. If you order 5 of a particular coral you are lucky if you get 1 or 2
2. They will replace whatever they do not have with something that they do. Sometimes it is REALLY nice, sometimes it is something common or ugly.
3. Any DOA's fall on our shoulders.
4. We need to order a minimum of 2 boxes. (Roughly 30 corals per box)
5. I would suggest Solomon Islands so that we can get some real nice Acropora and Stylophora corals.

The upside:

Usually from the Solomon Islands I would get the nicest small Acropora colonies. Real awesome colors and shapes. Same goes for polyps and soft corals. Some of the fish were spectacular as well.

I have just been tossing the idea around. Of course, I can take all of the risk for DOA's, but then I would have to make something on the corals. Also, I would need to set up a Quaranteen tank. (Which I do not have) Does someone have a system set up with UV, skimmer, heater, chiller and good flow as a QT?

-Alfred

[inkblue]

...hmmm, hoW mucH are yoU taLking abouT and wHat kiNd of coraLs? anY softieS, lpS, wHat kind fishiEs ...i haV coupLe of doLLars to buRn

	LPS Large Polyped Stony corals – In the aquarium hobby this is a common division of the species of stony corals based upon the visual assessment of the size of the polyps. Corals in this category were among the first stony corals to be kept successfully in captivity and include many very beautiful species. Commonly kept Genera include Euphyllia (hammer/frogspawn coral), Favia (brain coral), Plerogyra (bubble coral), Lobophyllia (meat/tooth coral), and Caulastrea (candycane coral). LPS corals also include the popular solitary non-colonial stony corals such as Fungia (plate coral), Cynarina (button coral), Trachyphyllia (open brain coral), and Herpolitha (tongue coral). Like their SPS counterparts, LPS corals require good water quality, intense lighting of the appropriate spectrum, adequate water movement and regular supplementation of calcium.

[kimoyo]

Alfred - I'd be down but my tank isn't ready yet. By march it should be good (its running now). I have an extra 30g tank I'm using as a quarantine now. Once the fish go into the main tank I would have no problem donating that tank for the cause. But its not setup for corals (no skimmer, halides or uv) and I don't have a good spot for it at my place. I was planning on getting a coralife skimmer (as a backup for my deltec) and mod'ing it but that won't be for another month or so. Either way I'm down, just in a few months.

[Alfredo De La Fe]

It has been several years since the last time I ordered via transhipping. My understanding is that costs have gone up considerably, especially because it is so difficult to ship via air cargo since 9/11. BUT- It is still much cheaper than retail.

-Alfred

[kimoyo]

I have several t5's and ballasts sitting around also.

I guess it also depends on how long you want to have the quarantine setup. Do you think it would be okay for the corals if we did a bb and put rocks in from an established system? Couldn't the corals just stay in there until we're sure they're okay?

[kimoyo]

Alfred - If you decided to do it let me know. I also have a 1/3hp aqualogic chiller sitting here that isn't hooked up to my display tank right now, a dual stage controller and a mag 7. The quarantine tank has a 3/4 bulkhead installed on the lower right. It wouldn't be hard to hook it up to the mag 7, the mag7 to the chiller, and the chiller returning to the tank. All it would need is a 3ft lighting unit and skimmer.

[noodleman]

what kind of corals? is there a website or list that we can look at?

[nycfatcow]

interested to..keep me posted

[Alfredo De La Fe]

I just got somewhere... 15 Fiji fancy acroporas will run us about $35 each shipped. (Plus they would been to be picked up at Newark airport)

No idea what colors, but they promise that they will all be "fancy" small to medium sized colonies. I should have the full stock list in tonights email.

We would need:

SPS dip of some kind to kill off surface bacteria
Buckets to acclimate and rinse the corals
Holding QT tanks to get them "healthy". I would not want to stress the corals out further by immediately repacking them for distribution.

-Alfred

	SPS Small Polyped Scleractinians - Sometimes known as Small Polyped Stony corals. These are hard corals that have extremely small polyps. They are typically on the difficult side and require Metal Halide lighting or dense Power Compact or T5 arrays. These corals are prized for their rareness and ability to be easily fragged into multiple colonies.