This was recently given to me when I moved and upgraded hope it helps.
Here are my tips for moving. Of course this is assuming you have a tank full of critters and you are trying to minimize mortality. Be ready for some mortality though--moving a tank is about the most stressful thing that can happen in a marine environment.
1) The initial goal is to get all the contents of your original tank moved into your new tank. If there are upgrades to be done, these should be done to the new tank at a later date.
For instance adding new live rock should wait until your tank is moved and settled back down. IF you have new LR waiting to go in, keep it in tubs with powerheads (should be adequate) until the new tank has settled in--then add it slowly so it does not cause a cycle.
Sand is a special case...I assume you are adding some fine, sugar grained sand to your sand bed to make it deeper (more on that in a moment)
Adding a skimmer or CA reactor same thing. Keep changes to a minimum until your tank is clearly re-established.
2) Be prepared--get all your ducks in a row and MAKE the move take only one day. Time is your enemy in this, the longer your critters are under move-stress the more you will lose.
3) Save as much water as you can from the initial setup. Have more water made and ready, on hand so you can completely top off the tank on setup. Use all of your old water first, then top off with the new water. New water should be kept at the same temp and salinity as the old.
4) Order of Battle:
1) Remove all corals--place each coral in a seperate bag or bucket containing water from the original setup. This water will be discarded at the end, as your corals will slime and spit stinging cells while the move is going on--you won't be wanting to put that water back in after the corals have polluted it.
2) Remove all Live rock--do this very carefully and take your time here...cloud the water as little as possible. Place the live rock in your tubs, again with water from the original setup. The water from the LR tubs will be placed back in the tank at the end of the move (unlike the water from the coral buckets/bags)
3) Net fish: Your water level should be getting a bit low already, so this should be pretty easy. If you are having a hard time catching the faster ones, feel free to siphon some more out and limit the room they have to run. Fish water will be added back to the new tank at the end.
4) Drain water: Drain the rest of your water out into buckets and save it. Get as much as you can.
5) Sandbed: Using a dustpan and some wide, flat tuperware containers remove the top two inches of your sandbed and deposit it carefully in the wide, flat tuperware containers. Top off with a little tank water to help keep the infauna alive.
Then scoop out the remainder of the substrate (the stuff that was more than 2" down) into buckets and save it. Don't bother wetting this bit--it will be back in soon enough.
6) Move the old system: Assuming here that your new 150 will go in the same place as your old system. Just shove the old one aside so you can work and shove the new one into place. Don't bother hooking up any of the pumps, or other gear yet--there will be time for that.
7) Stock new system: Your new system is now in place and your living room is filled with buckets and barrels.
a) Add Deep level substrate from buckets back into new system--spread evenly.
b) Add your new SD sand layer--spread evenly
c) Add back your layer of the top 2" of your old sand bed to top off your substrate level. (so the top level of your old substrate is now the top level of your new substrate--the bottom level is the same and new new sand takes up the middle area)
d) Add back the live rock (note that you are not adding water back in yet). This will allow you to place your live rock approximately where you want it without having it topple over and scratch your glass. Move quickly and efficienly here to keep the time your LR actually spends out of the water to a minimum.
When all the OLD LR is in the system start pumping in your old water.
e) Pump water from your barrels and let it run down your live rock pile as evenly as possible--using the live rock to break the flow of the water and minimize it stirring up the substrate.
f) After all the rock is covered with water remove your corals from their buckets and add them back in. So far you have only used old water so there should be no need to acclimate them. Don't add the old coral water back in--it's probably nasty.
g) Fish and such--these get added last.
h) Top off with the minimum amount of new water you can get away with and still get the pumps running. Let it sit overnight before topping it off to its max capacity.
9) Cleanup and Buy wife expensive dinner.
Ideally it would be better to move all your critters to an established system for about 3 days after the move--but it's rare that people have an extra system sitting around.
I hope that helps.
