This is how i did things when i moved house
;
a. Turn off all the tank eqipment apart from the filter and lighting (to make things easier to see).
b. Take all the plants/tank decor out and put the plants (if you have any) into some plastic transport bags (the sort that fish stores usually bag fish up in when you buy them), drying any other tank decor off and packing it up.
c. Get the fish bagged up in plastic transport bags for fish making sure there is about a quarter of each bag with no water in it so it has some air left in it when the fish are in it and the bag is sealed tight, wrap the bags in newspaper or dry towels and then put them in a secure padded box for transport.
Personally i would attend to the main/44gal tank and fry tank first, and leave the betta tanks till last as they will be the easiest to do.
d. Salvage as much of the old tank water as posible and put into plastic transport bags and also wrap it up in newspaper/towels to keep it warm enough- when the water level is too low for the filter to stay running in there, turn the filter off and put it into a bucket with a little tank water in the bottom to keep it wet as to try and save as much of the beneficial bacteria in filter sponge as posible and prevent the tank from cycling when it is set up again- remember to keep all plugs/sockets away from contact with water.
e. Scrape the tank substrate up and put it into a bucket for transport- if you have sand, it will be difficult to get all the stuff in the corners, i would not worry about this though; the aim is to make the tank light and safe enough to carry, so a little/tiny bit left over sand or gravel shouldn't be too much of an issue. The quicker all these processes are done the better
.
f. After everything else is packed safely in the car/van or whatever you are using to get them to the house- when you put the tank in the car, make sure the tank is on a perfectly flat surface and secure in place to prevent it from cracking from being knocked/moved about on the journey.
When you get to your new home, i would set up the molly fry tank first as these young fish will be some of the most stressed by the move, then i would set up the 44gal and then lastly the betta tanks.
In preparation for the move though before all this is done, i would do these things though;
a. Give the substrate a quick clean with a gravel vac if you have one, otherwise just give it a stir with your hands followed by a small water change, your subtrate may look perfectly clean to you but there can be a fair amount of fine dirt hiding under it which may make the tank look cloudy when it is set up again after the move or make it smelly when taking the substrate out.
The cleaner the tank is before the move the easier it'll be in general to get things done, so making sure its all tidy a day or 2 before the move will help a lot
.
b. See if you can call any friend or family to help you out getting the fish over to your new home, the more hands to help out the quicker it'll be especially if you have somone to help get the fish over to your new home
.
Since you live a fair way away from your new home, getting the fish moved as quickly and efficiently as posible will be the best way of going about things. When you set up your tank in your new home, get the old tank water in the tank and the filter running in it ASAP. Fill the rest of the tank up with fresh dechlorinated water and put in the subtrate- remember to make sure the temp of the water is correct for your fish.
Put the tank decor in, live plants should be a priority to other tank decor as so to make sure they don't dry out or suffer from being squished in the transport bags or anything too much. Don't worry to much about getting things looking nice and tidy as the sooner you get the fish in the better.
Take some time in acclimatising the fish back to the tank as their transport bags may have cooled down a fair amount, leave the bags floating in the tank for about 10mins before making a little hole in each one and letting a small amount of tank water into each bag- do this every 5-10mins until they have been acclimatising in the tank for around 30mins+, and then let the fish into the tank to swim around freely.
I would avoid feeding the fish for the first day/night (except the fry, which should be fed normally), and avoid putting on the tank lights for the first day or 2 or so to help lower stress levels.
