I actually just moved my 40 gallon peninsula tank from VA across the country to CA, and only lost one fish that jumped out of his bucket overnight at a hotel, and 2 sensitive corals that got squished by shifting rocks... I've also moved my tank short distance 3 times prior to that so I'm kind of a pro at this point. If you haven't already done the breakdown, you can DM me for tips. Quick summary:
Equipment:
Buckets are your savior
Three 2-gal buckets, and five 5-gal buckets were enough to store all my rocks, sand, coral, and fish
Bubblers - enough for each aerobic bucket
Thermometer/heating element
Small circulation pumps for livestock buckets
I have a HOB refugium that I plugged in at the hotels and hung on the edge of the livestock buckets to cycle out some nitrates
Temporary holding setup:
Enough power strips for all plugs you need
One 5-gal tank and one 10-gal tank for livestock, and multiple buckets (for extra water/sand/live rock without coral)
All equipment listed above
Lights for temp tanks
Cheap HOB filter
Keep the temporary holding as close to the original environment as you can: original water, slight sand on bottom, some live rock
Keep as much of your original water as you can.
When you set the tank back up, keep all that water you saved. The new water you mix and add is basically a water change
All those good micro-organisms living in your water column are going to need to repopulate, and best to keep their numbers as high as you can
If you have a sand bottom, you can keep your sand in a separate bucket with just enough water to keep it all submerged. It will keep the anaerobic microbes alive
When setting back up and putting the sand back in the main tank, toss any of that excess water you can (it's dirty/stinky, and some things will have died and you don't need those extra nitrates)
Nothing crashed, and I've had no outbreaks or issues. I was able to set it back up 2.5 weeks later in our new place and everyone seemed to settle back in immediately. I was still really upset that I lost a fish and 2 coral along the way, but those were physical mistakes on my part and not an issue with my moving method.
