Okay I have moved tanks and reset new tanks from old a bunch!
On moving day have three times as many five gallon buckets as you think you need. Have twice the volume of water mixed in anvance as the system will hold. Have new system totally ready (freshwater tested / level / I mean ready!) begin with filling a few buckets with some tank water and then place corals/sesile inverts in these, top them off with "some" premixed new water.
Once your sesiles have all been removed "carefully" begin removing all live rock - watch for hitch hikers! fill live rock water with some existing tank water and again "some" new mix water. Now fill a bucket about half full of water by siphoning off top of water column in tank. Start catching fish and put in that bucket (keep a lid on it!!!!!!!!!!!!) trust me on that. Now let the tank clear as much as you can and fill another bucket half way - now get the mobile inverts in there. Once this is done siphon off as much water as you can and save it. Now start ladling sand into a bucket and don't fill it more than half full (it will be heavy enough at half full!) - pour enough water that you siphoned off to just cover the sand - put a lid on it and repeat till all sand is removed. Now get everything to new location or simply start filling new tank with sand (put some eggcate down first and rock will never settle to glass!) - Base now down so begin rock work filling with as much saved water as needed to cover rock as you build up. Once rock is all up fill to allow operation of sump / filters / etc. Borrow a hotmag or other pilisher to clear water - once cleared add corals and other sessile inverts. Due a partial water change with premixed water - now add mobile inverts. Next add the fish. Now as long as lighting, filter/sump, skimmer, and all are working do another partial water change with any remaining pre mixed water.
Now clean up! Make as much salt water up as it would take to change system over (100 gallon system = make 100 gallons) - Next day change 10% water, next 10%, so on and so on until after 10 days you have completely used all your water up. During process feed every other day "sparingly" and monitor your parameters - because water was changes while resetting tank and after you shouldn't see a major spike maybe only a bump.
I have reset and or moved close to 30 systems this way.
Good luck and hope this helps.
