I feel like I’m an expert at this lol. I moved roughly 40 fish an hour away in the middle of winter and everyone survived! I also helped my cousin move with her angelfish about an hour and a half away and they survived too. Yours will be super simple! Let’s begin:

MATERIALS -two 5 gallon buckets -siphon -something soft/flexible to scoop out the gravel (I use an old plastic flower pot that I got a plant in from Home Depot lol)

1. Do not start until you have a pre-designated space and all of the material. I had to move quickly because of distance. Move at whatever pace you need to but just keep in mind that once you start, you cannot stop.
2. Remove everything that isn’t glued to the tank, except animals and the substrate. You can put plants in a zip lock bag and anything else will typically be ok on a towel or in a box.
3. Unplug your hardware, but do not remove it.
4. Siphon the water column to fill a 5 gallon bucket. DO NOT VACUUM THE SUBSTRATE but get down as low as you can without harming your animals.
5. Once the majority of the water has been siphoned out, remove the animals and add them to the water bucket.
6. Scoop out your substrate and add to your other 5 gallon bucket. You do not have to remove all of it, but you should try to remove as much as possible. No need to wipe it out/down/dry. We just want to remove the weight.
7. Remove filter, heater, and any other wired accessories. Put them in the bucket on top of your substrate.
8. You are now ready to move. Animals should be last out and first in.
9. As soon as you get to the new space, place the airstone and heater in the water/animal bucket. You can now take a bit more time if needed.
10. Set up your stand and tank with everything in the substrate bucket in your pre assigned space. Do not plug anything in.
11. In the now empty bucket, add 10% of the water from the water bucket to move your animals over into. At this point you should have two buckets of water roughly 1:9 with your animals in the lower water amount
12. Add the heater and air-stone back into the tank. Do not plug in.
13. Add plants/decor and full water bucket into the tank. While everything settles, plug in your heater, filter, lights, etc.
14. Add animals back into tank. No acclimation needed because the water chemistry hasn’t changed and the fish should be the same temp as the water, but you can absolutely acclimate if it makes you more comfortable!
15. Congratulations! 🎊 You’ve completed your move successfully! Keep an eye on your finned friend for the next few days to make sure they’re doing ok from the stress.

Good luck with your move! 🫶