Oh man.. Moving fish.. What fun eh?
Its a short move though, I wouldnt be so worried if I were you!! I moved a half dozen 55gs and more over 600 miles without a casualty..
If its within an hour driving distance, make it easy on yourself.. Heres an idea:
Get all your rubbermaid bins ready, you can use the smaller cheap ones, as you won't need a ton of water volume.. Hopefully you have enough heaters, and airpumps/filters..
I would first move all of your belongings into your new home, and plot where you are to put each tank.. Get that out of the way, and save the tanks for last.. Every move I have ever done, this is what I did..
Then, Fill the rubbermaids with tank water and add a heater to each one (or get a space-heater and heat a small bedroom up to 90 degrees).. With the rubbermaids, you should be able to set up your filtration units on them (HOB/Canister ~ ALSO, Keeps the Biological Media alive this way), just make sure there is plenty of oxygen and they don't get too cold.. Use a lid so the fish don't jump out, but I doubt you will have to seal it up real tight.
Don't feed your fish during this entire process, or a day before.. They will be fine - You don't want them to spoil their water.
Set these rubbermaids up as if you are intending to hold life in them for atleast a few days. Depends on the type of fish too, as Cichlids might annihilate each other in the new confined space.. Better safe then sorry, incase something goes wrong.. (leak/broken tanks.. gives you a day or two of coverage)
I would then drain all of your tanks, and move them.. Leave the fish behind, and concentrate on getting the new tanks set-up ASAP. You will likely have to fill them, and let them come up to temprature over the course of a night.. (This is where you will need heaters, and that heated bedroom will help).. Then in the morning, take all of your fishies and filtration units to the new location, and put all of your filtration into place and check water temps.. Hopefully at this point you can start slowly acclimating the fish and put them into their nice clean tanks. (This is a GREAT time to clean everything thoroughly, except your biological filtration!!)
The main thing is I wouldnt try to move them all in one shot.. I would make multiple trips with some patient friends and a big truck.. I would have the tanks prepped and up to temprature before I even move the fish out of the old house, that way its a short trip for the fish and they can go right into their new homes..
Rome wasn't built in a day! Neither was your collection of fish tanks!
Take your time ! Good Luck!
