I moved two 29 gallon biocubes previously about 30 miles away a couple years back. If you are able to and have some spare change make some water ahead of time. That is what I did and it helped. I also merged the two tanks into a 40 breeder. More or less here is what I did:
1. Picked up two 40 gallon brute trash bins and dolly/casters (those darn things are expensive)
2. Couple 5 gallon HD buckets with lids
3. Made 30 gallons of RI/RO water into one brute, then loaded up 2nd into SUV, and transfered water
4. Tank 1 - drain 3 gallons of water into HD bucket, catch fish, and place here
5. Tank 2 - drain some water to catch fish, place in bucket above
6. Drain both tanks water and move corals and rock to 2nd brute - enough to cover, add lid, move to SUV and load up
7. Grab a bit of sand from both into 3rd bucket
At this point I think I had just about everything loaded and covered into the buckets or brute trash bins and in the SUV (Toyota Sequoia). Next was driving down the back roads to the new house with someone in the back to watch over. It was all resting on towels and driver was going slow. We did it during the evening with less traffic and went all back roads. So far I would say the transfer of tanks to bins was about an hour give or take. Driving to the house was about 30 minutes. Once at the new place I had setup pre-staged the 40 breeder with water and heater in it. I moved some sand over right away first, then rocks, coral, fish, then turned on heater, power head(s), and skimmer and let it sit over night. In the morning it was somewhat clear and I was able to stack / place a bit better. No deaths but a few hammers broke during the movement or my haste but just made new frags...
The main challenge is thinking of what you can pre-prep and stage. Then it is just a dance to move out of the tank, into holding container limiting coral/rock shifting, and then placing into new/replaced tank. Having some staged items help.
