Official Unofficial 2018 Secret Santa Nano-Reef Gift Exchange 🎅⛄🌲

[righttirefire]

1 hour ago, jbb_00 said:

One year , my santa skipped out and sent me absolutely nothing so an empty box would be a step in the right direction. 

You were a forgotten SS? Lol... thats why you skim the prizes now. Well played

[Tamberav]

I ended up buying myself something so it wouldn't feel like I was spending shipping on my S.S. lol 

 

Ofc I still have to ship it from my house but it is fun decorating the package 😍

[Mazzy21]

3 hours ago, jbb_00 said:

One year , my santa skipped out and sent me absolutely nothing so an empty box would be a step in the right direction. 

That's awful!! I hope no one does that. 😞 

As for the shipping thing, I didn't include shipping charges in the spending of the gift. I don't see a prob including that cost, but I knew geography was going to make shipping a lot so I wouldn't have been able to get much of anything for my giftee if shipping was calculated in. "Merry Christmas, here's your small jar of Tetra fish food + shipping" would have been a pretty disappointing gift. LOL

[jbb]

8 hours ago, righttirefire said:

You were a forgotten SS? Lol... thats why you skim the prizes now. Well played

Yep, and they wanted back in the secret Santa like a year or two later and offered to send me a box of used aquarium gear to make up for it.  

[righttirefire]

2 hours ago, jbb_00 said:

Yep, and they wanted back in the secret Santa like a year or two later and offered to send me a box of used aquarium gear to make up for it.  

You accept used aquarium gear? Send me your address i got some "nice" "slightly used-like new" gear... 

[jbb]

17 minutes ago, righttirefire said:

You accept used aquarium gear? Send me your address i got some "nice" "slightly used-like new" gear... 

nope, and they didn't get in 

[HarryPotter]

TBH I would love to win that Ultum 60u!! Would be a perfect excuse to start a small species tank... 24x14x14 seems perfect. I think I would dedicate it to BTAs, because I have like ~9 now after all the splits!!! Or put my RFA rock in it (has like 15 big ones) and try to breed them like @FlowerMama did. 

[righttirefire]

Just now, HarryPotter said:

TBH I would love to win that Ultum 60u!! Would be a perfect excuse to start a small species tank... 😈

You need another tank like you need another hole in your head... come get my im8! 

[HarryPotter]

Just now, righttirefire said:

You need another tank like you need another hole in your head... come get my im8! 

 

Its break, I have a few weeks until school starts again. What could be a better time to waste even more time?!?! 

[Tamberav]

5 hours ago, jbb_00 said:

Yep, and they wanted back in the secret Santa like a year or two later and offered to send me a box of used aquarium gear to make up for it.  

I mean duh!!! They send you used old s.s. re-gifted stuff and they screw over the next person for new stuff. 

[HarryPotter]

For anyone complaining about shipping: I had to ship a 9lb cutting board. Ouch.

[A Little Blue]

15 hours ago, jbb_00 said:

One year , my santa skipped out and sent me absolutely nothing so an empty box would be a step in the right direction. 

That's messed up. Btw, all my stuff are almost ready to ship out tomorrow. Just need to wrap it up (hate that) and drop it off. 

[A Little Blue]

4 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

For anyone complaining about shipping: I had to ship a 9lb cutting board 😭

You did not have to. But you did it and that's what counts. 

[slowngreen]

Flat rate boxes can be up to 70lbs for the same price so no biggy.

[Sancho]

12 hours ago, Mazzy21 said:

That's awful!! I hope no one does that. 😞 

As for the shipping thing, I didn't include shipping charges in the spending of the gift. I don't see a prob including that cost, but I knew geography was going to make shipping a lot so I wouldn't have been able to get much of anything for my giftee if shipping was calculated in. "Merry Christmas, here's your small jar of Tetra fish food + shipping" would have been a pretty disappointing gift. LOL

Meh it it what is is.....I’ve never kept to the $30 suggested amount. But that’s jus me. 

[Mazzy21]

I don't think it's so much a "complaint" - at least in the sense of being somehow upset  about participating - as it is the frustration of spending as much on shipping as on the gifts when that money could have been better spent on more gifts.

As far as weight or size of packages, neither of those things factor in as much as distance.  If you ship cross country, instead of i.e. somewhere in the middle to anywhere, or within the same general region, your shipping isn't comparable to i.e. shipping from one coast to the other. So yeah, for me I just wish I could have spent that money on my SS instead of shipping if I was going to spend that much more anyway. And that is really all I'm venting. But if it makes others feel like I'm complaining about participating then I'm sorry I mentioned it, it wasn't intended to offend in any way.

 

[patback]

1 minute ago, Mazzy21 said:

I don't think it's so much a "complaint" - at least in the sense of being somehow upset  about participating - as it is the frustration of spending as much on shipping as on the gifts when that money could have been better spent on more gifts.

As far as weight or size of packages, neither of those things factor in as much as distance.  If you ship cross country, instead of i.e. somewhere in the middle to anywhere, or within the same general region, your shipping isn't comparable to i.e. shipping from one coast to the other. So yeah, for me I just wish I could have spent that money on my SS instead of shipping if I was going to spend that much more anyway.

Unless it is a huge wierd shape, use USPS.  I haven't shipped anything in quite a while so it may be different, but I've shipped from east end long island to washington state 3-day for 14 bucks, and the box probably weighed a solid 15 lbs.  

[Mazzy21]

I don't want to describe my package cuz I don't want to give it away but maybe shipping has increased significantly since you've last shipped USPS. Next year I'll follow others in drop shipping. I know the post office has a job to do and needs to get paid for that job but it would feel better, to me, to spend that money on my SS and let the business I purchased from deal with the shipping, then everybody wins - I buy more, SS gets more.

PS - and in all reality it just comes down to a matter of what any given person prioritizes. Like in a couple other posts people were talking about used items. I wouldn't send a used item becasue I have no idea how my SS giftee would feel about that, BUT if my own SS saw something on my list that they had, worked, and they didn't use and decided they could stretch their dollar further if they gave me that used thing and then spent their money on some other item I'd be totally cool with that and consider that an awesome use of resources (plus it keeps one more thing from the landfills). So ~shrug~ it's just how we all feel we can give our SS the best gifts by how money is best spent IMO.

 

[HarryPotter]

1 hour ago, A Little Blue said:

You did not have to. But you did it and that's what counts. 

 

My comment was not intended to criticize anyone. Just wallowing in my own self-pity 😂😭

[HarryPotter]

I couldn't use the "10% off first purchase" coupon since I have an account, but I just ordered the MaxSpect Glue gun from @Marine Depot. I love the idea of putting a spot of glue down on my rock and then pushing the coral onto it.... Or using the glue gun to cover palys/an aptasia. 

 

The normal coral glue I use is $5 per oz, the maxspect stuff would be $8.5 per oz. But theoretically in the glue gun I would be able to get more out of it.... so hopefully it evens out. Dunno anyone thats tried it yet though. 

[A Little Blue]

1 hour ago, HarryPotter said:

 

My comment was not intended to criticize anyone. Just wallowing in my own self-pity 😂😭

Never said you did. Those cutting boards are real PITA to ship. 

I saw a guy earlier today sanding out cutting boards with inlays and sh&t. They looked really nice. He had few ready for sale and I thought, that would be a really cool gift. I would take a pic with the guy and his sander and maybe have him put some personal touch........

But then I remembered what a PITA shipping of that sh&t is. 

Thanks🤣😂🤣

[Sancho]

35 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

I couldn't use the "10% off first purchase" coupon since I have an account, but I just ordered the MaxSpect Glue gun from @Marine Depot. I love the idea of putting a spot of glue down on my rock and then pushing the coral onto it.... Or using the glue gun to cover palys/an aptasia. 

 

The normal coral glue I use is $5 per oz, the maxspect stuff would be $8.5 per oz. But theoretically in the glue gun I would be able to get more out of it.... so hopefully it evens out. Dunno anyone thats tried it yet though. 

Wait there a glue gun??  

[A Little Blue]

Just now, Sancho said:

Wait there a glue gun??  

Yeah, I saw one already. They look good. They claim very little waste. Also wonder how effective are those. @HarryPotter we need an update. 

[A Little Blue]

BTW screw/bolt size for Kessil seems to be (I mixed them up so now I am not sure) either M5 or M4. Local hardware is the way to go. HomeDepot got morons on their payroll so don’t waste your time. 

[HarryPotter]

24 minutes ago, Sancho said:

Wait there a glue gun??  

 

https://www.coralvue.com/maxspect-coral-coral-glue-gun