I ship corals out weekly and Ill tell yo uhow I do it. I dont use a whole lot of water. If you are shipping very many it takes up too much space, weighs too mcuh, and costs too much to ship. Its not necessary. I only use styrofoam and float the coral upside down if it is a especially fragile piece or a colony. The slight rubbing on the bag is a non issue assuming you pack it so the bags dont flop around inside the container. I dont use hardly any air either for corals. Reason is that you cant assume that the box wont end up upside down. If you use too m uch air then when the box DOES get upside down, the coral will be out of the water and then the rubbing IS an issue, as well as there is a chance when it flips back rightside up that the coral will catch and sit funny.
Triple bagging is good. I prefer to use bags that are tall enough so that i can tie them shut instead of ruberbands. each bag individually tied shut. I buy my bags from petco. LOL I use a large black garbage bag open in the cooler to put the bags in. After placing all the bags in there, pull the air out of the black bag and tie this shut. This accomplishes two things. 1. It absolutely eliminates the chance of anything leaking and the box being held back. 2. It creates a guaranteed black environment for the corals so that they try to respirate as little as possible which is what you want for the trip. Then pack tightly in peanuts to fill up any space so motion is nil. You must assume that fed-ex is going to drop kick your box. Pack accordingly
Im pretty confident in my shipping practices, im one of the few individuals who will guarantee healthy arrival of corals. I DO ship mainly sps.
The before 10:30 delivery time is of course a good thing. I only ship that way if I am shipping higher end LE type corals though. Never a problem with afternoon delivery.
just my $.02
