Moving stocked 125 gallon glass aquarium from one stand to another, how do I do this?

[Gannon]

Hello! I recently compromised the stand that came with my 125 gallon tank through a slip up and water spill, I know I should've built my own from the start so now i recently completed a very nice DIY stand. However, I was wondering how best to go about moving this tank.

I need to move it onto the floor briefly so I can remove the old stand and bring in the new one in its place, and then I need to move the 125 back onto the new stand.

I'm guessing I 100% need to remove my fish right? So far its just small rainbows and Denison barbs, but I was barely able to catch these guys in a 15 gallon so how can I hope to catch them in a tank this big?

I have barrels for draining the tank as much as possible which is good, but just how far do I need to drain this tank? All the way?

Also I have roughly 150 pounds of sand (dry) and a good bit of rock and driftwood in there, do I need to remove these as well? If so how much?

Thanks for all help you can offer on this topic! I've never had a tank this big and its been hard to find a guide for something exactly like this. I really appreciate each and everyone of you guys on here!

[lefty o]

i would drain it to 1/3 or less water, then catch fish. for actually moving it, i would remove as much water as is easily done, then remove a good 90% or more of the substrate (5 gal buckets are great for this). you are going to set this tank on the floor, and anything in it is a lot of weight, to get it up off the floor it would be very hard to do with much of anything in it, and you dont want to twist the tank. 40ish gallon tanks and less can usually be moved fairly easily with a bunch of substrate in them, but once you get larger, imo you are asking for trouble.