I do the tank transfers with two 15 gallon tanks, each with it's own compliment of equipment. Each one has it's own powerhead, heater, thermometer, cover, PVC hidy holes, and light. They sit next to each other on the counter in my laundry room and share the same timed outlet. They're right next to a big work sink so it's crazy easy to drain, clean, and re-fill them for the transfers, and they're small enough that you can just rinse them out with the hand sprayer from the sink. Cleaning out 4 inches of sand 4 times is going to be a major PITA this time, but it's worth it I think. I don't use nets to catch the fish either, I use a clear tupperware that I drilled a hole bunch of holes in. I read somewhere that it's easier on the tissue in their eyes, and it seems to actually be less stressful for them than being netted. I've done it enough times that I'm actually pretty good at catching them on the first try, from the moment my hand breaches the water to them being in a new but identically decorated tank is never more than 30 seconds. Everyone seems to go back to behaving perfectly normally in an hour or less.
I had the lights left over from a 20 gallon planted tank I tore down years ago, and I think I had both power-heads from tanks gone by (one's a cheapy little koralia, the other is an uber over-kill Vortech MP10 that I can't use in my current tank because the glass is too thick), so I was able to set the whole thing up for around $200 bucks. If you didn't have any old equipment to re-purpose, I think you could probably set something similar up for less than 300 if you really went bare bones on the equipment. They only really need a lamp on a timer so that they get a proper day/night cycle.
Then I have a 40 gallon tank for extended stays in QT, but most of the time it's empty. I used to keep the canister filter cycled by running it in an old salt bucket in my garage that I'd drop a shrimp in to every once in a while.
If I'm not getting any new fish, the whole QT system just gets put away in the garage. The only thing that requires ongoing attention is the canister filter, which I actually had totally broken down a while ago because I haven't gotten new fish in months. Since I'm not going to move this wrasse to the 40 gallon at the end, I didn't set it back up.
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