Moving a 120 gallong tank, opinions?

[lemon drop]

Well I bought the tank in Salem. Yeah!!!!!
4x2x2, 120 gal tank with over 150lbs of live rock, 125lbs of live sand, 1 15inch rose anemone and tons of corals and some fish. It has 2 mh lamps (350 w & 400w) and a aqua medic needle wheel protien skimmer, sump, dual internal waterfalls, digital temp control, furniture grade oak stand and hood and all.
Now I need to prepare for the move. I have had the basic suggestions; bring buckets/garbage cans/coolers to keep 1/2 to 3/4 of the water and keep live rock and sand subersed, move quickly (less than 6 hrs?), get transport bags for the critters.
Any other thoughts or tips will be helpful!
Thanks in advance.

 

[sinner's girl]

do you have a place you can keep the fish/inverts till you know if the 120 cycles?
keep 1/2 to 3/4 of the water
IME, I'd keep as much as possible. Have water mixed and ready to add at home, I wouldn't add more than 25% water.
have him test the water, it's better to move a tank with good water than bad...(example when we bought the 75gl nitrates were high, but the deal was too good to pass up, we had a cycle although we kept everything wet and the move was only across town (we're 10 mins driving max). I don't remember how much of the orginal water we kept though, and there was only one piece of rock and dreaded cc.
However, I've never successfully moved a tank, something always goes wrong either a cycle or mother-in-law. When we moved the 75gl the second time, down the street, I keep 90% of the original water, ect, no cycle...but fishie didn't like bug spray in his water. 20 long didn't like being without power for the weekend.
Good luck!

 

[lemon drop]

Will the tank really cycle if I keep 3/4 of the water. It will be like a big water change. The tank does have some coraline growth that we plan on removing before transporting so it won't die off and contaminate the tank.