We grow it, we pack it, we stand behind it
Our corals are aquacultured or conditioned in our own Key West systems under Florida Aquaculture Certificate #AQ0254072. We’re a working farm with a storefront, not a warehouse — which means the person choosing your coral, packing your box and writing the label is the same person who grew it.
We don’t ship animals we wouldn’t put in our own tanks. If a piece isn’t right on packing day, we cancel the order and tell you why rather than send it and hope.
How we ship
UPS Next Day Air, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We ship early in the week so nothing sits in a facility over a weekend.
Flat rate $50. Free on qualifying livestock orders of $349 or more — including WYSIWYG pieces. Equipment, aquariums, food, additives, test kits and other dry goods ship at their own rate and do not count toward the $349 threshold.
Box & handling: $10 per shipping box. A box holds up to 6 lb of packed livestock, so larger orders ship in more than one box, each with its own $10 fee. This covers the insulated liner, heat or cold packs sized to the forecast at your address, and breather bags. We don’t guess at this — we check your zip code’s overnight low before we pack.
Florida: $30 UPS Next Day Air livestock shipping. If your shipping address is in Florida and the order is qualifying livestock under 6 lb, UPS Next Day Air is a flat $30 instead of the standard rate. The $10 Box & Handling Fee still applies, heavier or mixed shipments ship at the standard $50 flat rate, and qualifying livestock orders of $349 or more ship free either way.
Where we can ship. We ship to the continental United States only. We do not ship to Alaska or Hawaii — that applies to livestock, dry goods, equipment and aquariums alike. If you are outside the continental U.S., please get in touch before building a box.
Weather holds. If conditions at either end put the animals at risk, we hold the box and contact you. A one-week delay is always better than a dead coral, and we’d rather make that call than take the chance.
Someone needs to be there. Overnight boxes left on a doorstep in the sun or the cold are the single most common cause of loss. Please plan to receive the box, or arrange a hold at your UPS facility.
Live Arrival Guarantee
We guarantee your livestock arrives alive. Here’s exactly how it works, so there are no surprises.
What to do when the box arrives
Before you open anything, photograph or video the specimen in the sealed, unopened bag. Clear and well lit, showing the animal. This takes fifteen seconds and it is the whole claim.
Send it within 4 hours of the UPS delivery scan, to jamie@theunderwatergardener.com with your order number.
That’s it. Then acclimate as normal.
Why the sealed bag matters
Once a bag is opened, there’s no way for us — or the carrier — to establish what condition the animal arrived in. The sealed-bag photo is what lets us make a claim against UPS on your behalf and make you whole without a debate. A claim without it can’t be honored, and we’d much rather tell you that now than after the fact.
What we do about it
Approved claims are resolved with a replacement or store credit — whichever suits you and what’s in the system at the time. Credit doesn’t expire.
We don’t issue cash refunds on livestock. That’s the standard across the industry, and it’s the only way a small farm can guarantee live animals across a thousand miles of freight and still be here next season.
What the guarantee covers
Condition on arrival. That’s the part we control and we stand behind it completely.
Once an animal is acclimated into your system, its health depends on your water, your lighting, your flow, your alkalinity swings and your tank mates — things we can’t see or control. Coverage doesn’t extend past acclimation.
Worth knowing: most corals don’t open on day one. A torch that arrives closed, a scoly that stays deflated, an acro with polyps in — that’s normal transit stress, not a dying animal. It’s not a DOA and it’s usually not a problem. Give it a few days in stable water before you worry. We’ve written this up in detail in our care guides, and if something looks wrong to you, message us — we’d genuinely rather talk you through it than have you sit up at night.
Cancellations and changes
Before it ships: we’ll cancel and issue store credit, less a 20% restocking fee. Once a piece is reserved for you it comes off the site, off eBay, and out of the tank rotation, and that has a real cost.
After it ships: we can’t cancel. The animal is already in transit.
Change of mind: all sales are final. These are living animals — we can’t put a shipped coral back into our system without risking every other animal in it. Please ask us anything you want before you order. We’ll answer honestly, including when the honest answer is “this one isn’t right for your tank.”
Things outside our control
We’re not responsible for carrier delays, misroutes, or packages lost by UPS after they leave our hands. We will always help you file the claim and we’ll chase it with you — but the carrier’s performance isn’t something we can guarantee.
How claims work
Send us the sealed-bag photo within 4 hours of the delivery scan and we will take it from there. That one photo is the whole claim.
We keep records of every shipment we send, so we can settle claims quickly and fairly without asking you to prove the same thing twice. If something arrives wrong, we make it right.
Questions
Ask us before you buy. info@theunderwatergardener.com · (305) 850-9949
The Underwater Gardener · 2816 N Roosevelt Blvd, Suite 1, Key West, FL 33040
FL Aquaculture Certificate #AQ0254072