tperk9784 said:
I think what orchidman is trying to say is that the airlines charge a minimun fee for a box of freight. in his case it was anything up to and including but not over 100 lbs is charged a flat rate.
Tim
Right :thumbsup:
Tirtguyll, You will need to do some investigation but 5 lbs of rock would probably have a 10 to 15 lb shipping weight after you take into account the box, packaging, plastic bags (there will be several inside of each other), water and finally rock.
Now what will that cost by UPS or FEDEX?
Shipping by airlines will have a minimum 100 lb rate which will probably be around $50 dollars since mine was around $45
So you could ship 2 lbs of rock or 50 lbs of rock for the same minimum fee. Now if that is higher then FEDEX/UPS next day air, then go with them. Otherwise your airlines is much better. Your rock will be out of TBS's tank and into your tank in around 12 hours to 16 hours while it will be a minimum of 24 hours by FEDEX/UPS.
We have received 2 packages from them in the past 10 months. The first, both halves took the same flights and was about 11 am eastern time out of TBS's tank and into my tank around 10pm central.
This package we just received, they were packed around 10am and in our tanks by 7pm.
That short turn around time sure makes it nice. We have never had to do a water change eventhough we watch our chemistry very closely. (knocking on wood, he said)
You are saying that you only need a couple lbs of rock. That is probably not even a piece much bigger then a softball. If you only need a single piece, I would check out your LFS and grab one that is exactly what you need. If you are decorating a 10 gal tank, then you would need between 10 and 20 lbs of rock so you are then looking at TBS again as an option.
Good luck and have fun doing it.
Gary