Shipping Supplies

[lwarctic]

Hello Everyone, Just a quick questions for all of those out there that ship there own discus. Just curious where does a person purchase shipping supplies, especially SYROFOAM BOXES AND THE CARDBOARD BOX THAT THE STROFOAM BOXES FIT INTO. Thanks for your replies.

Les

[Discusgeo]

I get the Styrofoam box from a local store that deals in saltwater fish. I then need to go to a store that sells shipping supplies to get the box. I get my bags for Mid-State Plastics http://www.midstateplastics.com They manufacturer watertight bags for the Tropical Fish Industry in Tampa Florida.

George

[brewmaster15]

I get the majority of my shipping supplies from Jehmco.com

another place is ...
http://www.ftffa.com/


For boxes.. LFS shops, and laboratories. The latter recieve samples and reagents in Styros all the time.

-Al

[lwarctic]

Al and George, thank you for your replies. I compared different places to buy plastic bags and it looks like in most cases Jehmco is the best place to shop. Anyone know of any other places with cheaper prices?

Thanks again,

Les

[fcdiscus]

I do not know about cheaper Les, but I like the square bottom bags at Florida Fish Farms-4fishstuff.com. Heat packs too. Frank 8)

[AndyL]

Boxes... Well they come from wherever I can find them that week.

The foam, well thats actually easy Your local hardware store! A angelfish breeder taught me this trick - works really well and costs a LOT less than buying the 'cooler' style foam boxes.

I buy sheets of 1 1/2" blue foam (Dow I believe)- used for insulating basements etc. What you do is you cut 6 squares to fit JUST inside the box, nice and tight. Then you cut another 6 to fit inside that with alternating seams.

If you want to go nuts you could always use Tuck Tape or similar to seal the inside and make it watertight.

I think darcy has a picture I took to show him - maybe he'd be kind enough to post it.

Andy

[AndyL]

Darcy is a slacker!!!

This should give you the basic idea (ignore the foam peanuts!)

This one has gone across canada a few times, so its getting pretty worn, the foam used to be a tight fit.

Andy

[wall_o_fish]

I'm not a big-time shipper, but I've shipped at least a dozen times. Jehmco's never done me wrong yet. :-)

scott

[Fish_Fin-atic]

You can sometimes find good deals on shipping supplies at aquabid.com for things like bags, and heat packs. I did a search on the web for stryrofoam boxes, and found a restaurant supplier within 20 minutes of me, where I could pick up pre-made boxes with styrofoam liners for $6 each. Maybe if you look around, you can find something similar. Look for restaurant supply, or styrofoam manufacturers. Heat packs are also available at Walmart, and oxygen can be had from any welding supply shop. Good luck.