It takes as much or more time to move your aquarium as it does to move an entire house. Your first step is to have boxes, bags and buckets plus saltwater ready to go. As a courtesy to our customers, we provide boxes, buckets and bags free. We also will have premixed saltwater ready to go in any quantity under 500 gallons. You need your time for the breakdown and setup - it's a full day job.

Know where your new tank is going and be prepared to level it if necessary. DO NOT FEED YOUR FISH (TANK) FOR 2 DAYS BEFORE MOVING. You don't want ammonia in the bags.
If the new saltwater is cold, set your jugs in the bath tub with an inch or two of hot water. They will warm up in abut 30 minutes from being ice cold.

To break down your tank.
1. Fill all your fish bags with tank clear tank water before disturbing anything. You don't want your fish bagged in cloudy water. Have bags with tank water ready for inverts too.
2. Either bag corals or put them in tubs. Be sure they don't roll around. Bagging is best and corals can set overnight if kept at 68-75 degrees. We will provide Styrofoam boxes for you.
3. Remove live rock carefully as not to disturb sediment. Siphon a bucket of water to rinse rocks outside the tank. Rock kept underwater is best but not necessary - place in boxes with several cups of water and cover with saltwater soaked newspaper. Lights, heaters and pumps are not needed.
Be careful that fish, starfish, etc are not trapped in the rock when you put it in boxes.
4. Net your fish and bag them. If they need to be in bags many hours, leave them in a warm place with the bags open. They are shipped 24+ hours all the time.
5. Search for crabs, snails and other things. Most of these little things can go in the bottom of your rock boxes.
6. Use a powerhead to stir up your gravel/sand. Siphon the remaining water out the door as low as you can go.. This a good time for cleaning your tank as well as a good water change. It is false that your water must be completely moved with the tank.
7. Take your tank with the gravel in it if possible - if not, be prepared to have more than enough extra buckets to scoop out the sand. This sand can be rinsed with saltwater if very dirty.
This is where glass tanks leak most often.
8. Take down the rest of the equipment and move it to your new place.

Put it all back together
Putting it together is almost reversing the break down procedure. You may want to add a plenum (described in Aquarium Setup). Otherwise reassemble your live rock, add water to the tank, start your filter(s), check temperature and salinity, add corals and acclimate fish and inverts slowly.
Sounds easy, doesn't it? Surprise! PLAN ON A FULL DAY TO MOVE YOUR TANK