I just moved my tank, the only loss I had 1 snail and the tank it self, so I have everything in a smaller tank now.

This is what I did.

I put the water from the tank into 5 gallon buckets.

Got plastic bags from the pet store to transport the fish and snails.

Put the live rock in styro lined boxes I have and placed wet newspaper on them with a little water in the box as well.

I had another 20 gallons of water mixed and waiting at the new place just in case I needed it.

Just set the tank back up, and had the fish in 3-4 days later after I made sure there wasn't any huge ammonia spikes.

how do you not add the fish back into it.. what do I put the fish in for a few days???

I've moved my 20g about 5 times in the past 2 years and have never lost a thing (full Reef).
I just use 5 or 6 home depot or old salt bucket with secure lids.

1.) Remove as many unattached corals as you can and bag each individually.

2.) Drain water from display into 5 gal bucket and start removing live rock w/ corals attached. (just be careful with placement in the bucket) you might need 2 buckets for this.

3.) Catch fish and place in bucket with tank water all by themselves.

4.) throw all snails in bucket with rock.
(if your missing crabs or shrimp then they probably went into the rock and will show themselves in a day or so)

5.) Stir up the sand alot to remove the detritus and drain the remaining gallon or two and pour it out. You will replace this water at the new location with freshly made.
Be careful when moving the tank with sand in it, from my experience the weight can be enough to compromise the seal and cause salt creep on the tank when it is setup again.

6.) Move all this as fast as you can to the next location and start setting it up again. Water, rock, and lastly fish, worry about aquascaping another day.
Fish and all right back into the tank.

7.) make up new saltwater to top the tank up, setup your powerheads, heater, lights etc and you good to go again.

I might have missed something, but that should pretty much be the gist of it.

Good luck! a tank move can be a pretty hectic day.

I put them in my 15 gallon quarantine.

so it's looking like I move in a month...i have to be out of my apartment and into the house in the same day so premix at the other place is not an option.... I will call some lfs to see if I can rent some jugs!

Awesome thread, I'm going to be moving to Vancouver in the next couple of months and this is coming in handy!

Your LFS might hold the fish, rock, coral ect. for a while It might be worth asking, just to relieve some stress. From you!

does anyone have buckets or jugs I could borrow for a few weeks (well from april 24th - may 4th??)

Yep...for the pails and I got lids

wayne, you're amazing!!!