Mailing cycled filter media?

[Chris1212]

OK, any ideas how I can pull this off? Hoping to mail some of my cycled (2 year) filter media to my sister to jumpstart their new tank. Let's say for planning purposes 3-4 day trip in the mail but I suppose o could pay to overnight it.

Will ship it in tank water. Bags? Some sort of plastic tupperware secured?

Will it even work?

 

[connorlindeman]

OK, any ideas how I can pull this off? Hoping to mail some of my cycled (2 year) filter media to my sister to jumpstart their new tank. Let's say for planning purposes 3-4 day trip in the mail but I suppose o could pay to overnight it.

Will ship it in tank water. Bags? Some sort of plastic tupperware secured?

Will it even work?

I dont think it would work. It would die by the time it arrived.
It would be easier to for her to just buy some quickstart or something like that.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

If you treated it as if it were livestock...which afterall the BB is sort of livestock....either placed in bags or a tub in aquarium water, boxed with polystyrene protection inside and shipped overnight, leaving dispatch as late afternoon as a shipper allows, with a guarantee of a before noon next day delivery, it should be OK

If you paid for overnight with a before noon guarantee delivery and marked the box as livestock, it would be handled more gently but you would need to keep the media very wet...not sat in a puddle per se but straight from your aquarium, don't wring it out, into a tub or bag (if bagged, use two bags to prevent leakage), seal it soaking wet with a small amount of excess water it should survive the journey

Have your sister get some booster just to maybe give it a bit of help to get going again and to revitalise it on arrival if needed.

As long as you pack it very carefully and keep it very wet and warm (warming pack and/or polystyrene), it should be fine.

 

[connorlindeman]

If you treated it as if it were livestock...which afterall the BB is sort of livestock....either placed in bags or a tub in aquarium water, boxed with polystyrene protection inside and shipped overnight, leaving dispatch as late afternoon as a shipper allows, with a guarantee of a before noon next day delivery, it should be OK

If you paid for overnight with a before noon guarantee delivery and marked the box as livestock, it would be handled more gently but you would need to keep the media very wet...not sat in a puddle per se but straight from your aquarium, don't wring it out, into a tub or bag (if bagged, use two bags to prevent leakage), seal it soaking wet with a small amount of excess water it should survive the journey

Have your sister get some booster just to maybe give it a bit of help to get going again and to revitalise it on arrival if needed.

As long as you pack it very carefully and keep it very wet and warm (warming pack and/or polystyrene), it should be fine.

But it also has to have a food source and an oxygen source. I would think that after a few hours it would no longer be viable.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

But it also has to have a food source and an oxygen source. I would think that after a few hours it would no longer be viable.

Surely it is no different to if you moved house though

You pack up the filter media in a small amount of aquarium water in a bag or a tub and drive to the new home that could be 24 hours away

If it is packaged appropriately (aquarium water and kept warm) and the shipper does a pick up at say 3pm with a guaranteed drop off by midday next day its not going to deteriorate any more than it would when moving house...and a bit of BB booster at the new residence certainly won't do it any harm incase it has suffered any ill-effects

 

[connorlindeman]

Surely it is no different to if you moved house though

You pack up the filter media in a small amount of aquarium water in a bag or a tub and drive to the new home that could be 24 hours away

If it is packaged appropriately (aquarium water and kept warm) and the shipper does a pick up at say 3pm with a guaranteed drop off by midday next day its not going to deteriorate any more than it would when moving house...and a bit of BB booster at the new residence certainly won't do it any harm incase it has suffered any ill-effects

That's true... shipping next day isn't cheap though. Bottled bacteria would probably be more cost-effective.

 

[Colin_T]

You can do it if you use a sponge. Put it in a fish bag with a small amount of water, not too much, just a little tiny bit. Then seal the bag up with air and put another bag over it. Pop it in an esky/ cooler or box and send it.

It won't be cheap but the bacteria should survive in a humid environment that is in the dark, for a few weeks.

Clean the sponge a few days before sending it. The gunk in the filter media is useless and does nothing to cycle a tank.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The bacteria will not die in days as long as a few conditions are met.

They cannot be allowed to dry out or they will die.
They cannot be allowed to freeze or they will die.
They cannot be allowed to get much be over 100F for any length of time or they will die.

The bacteria are able to survive bad times by going dormant. They will remain very viable for 6 months that way (12 months if kept cool as in a refigerator. They can sense when the essential things they need like ammonia/nitrite, oxygen inorganic carbon etc. become unavailable and they go dormant. When what they need that is missing returns, they will wake up and go back to work.

To send them you need a couple of fish bags. You do not need much air in the bag and to keep the cost of shipping down not much water. Just enough so the media stays damp completely. If it is very hot or very cold in transit then you may need a heat or a cold pack.

There is some good bacteria in the brown gunk that comes out of the bio-media when we rinse it. One way to help jump start the cycle in a new tank is to rinse out bio-media from a cycled tank in the new tank. This is often referred to as filter squeezings. Media that cannot be"squeezed" can usually be swished. The brown gunk is also great for plants.

Basically, you ship the media pretty much the same way you would ship fish, but with much less water and minimal air in the bag. I would not want them to be in transit more than 3 days. Remove the media from the filter and bag it when you are ready to ship it. Don't forget to use dechlorinated water for shipping.