How to Move Potted Plants and an Aquarium When Moving House in Malaysia: The Living Things Ride in the Car, the Tank Rides Like a Mirror

25 September 2026

Short answer: plants and fish are the two things in a house move that packaging cannot protect, because the danger is not knocks but heat and time. The living things ride in the car with you, air-con on, never in a closed lorry body. Everything else is a packaging job. Water pots three or four days before, not the morning of, so they are light and not dripping; put each pot in a plastic bag tied at the stem so soil stays in; stand small pots snug in an open once-used carton, never a closed one, and pack the gaps with crumpled paper or foam so no pot can tip. Big floor pots go on the lorry last, upright, on a folded bin liner as a drip tray, and are the first thing off. For the aquarium, the fish go into buckets and bags with the old tank water, the tank is emptied down to the bare glass, carried from underneath by two people, and then packed exactly like a mirror: a sheet of PE foam, a sheet of layer pad either side, stretch film to hold it, standing on its edge in the lorry, nothing on top. Set the tank up the same day. The most useful thing we can tell you is what a box supplier cannot do: no carton keeps a fish or a fern alive in a lorry that has been parked in the sun.

Why the lorry is the problem, not the packing

Every other post on this blog is about padding a thing so that a lorry ride does not break it. Plants and fish are different. A monstera does not chip. The risk is a closed lorry body, loaded at nine in the morning and unloaded at two in the afternoon, which in the Klang Valley heat becomes an oven that no leaf and no fish survives. A closed box in that lorry is worse, because there is no air at all.

So the plan is split. The living things, and the water, go in the car, or in the open cab of the lorry if the driver agrees and it is a short hop. The pots, the stands, the gravel, the filter, the empty tank and the bags of soil go on the lorry like anything else. Most moving crews will tell you the same: they will carry pots, but they take no responsibility for what is growing in them, and many will not take fish at all. Ask when you book, and plan on the car.

Potted plants

Three or four days before

Water, then stop. A pot watered the morning of the move is at its heaviest, drips into whatever is under it, and the wet soil slides about and tears roots. Water three or four days ahead so the soil is damp but firm; in our humidity a pot does not dry out in four days.
Prune what is already dying, and check under the leaves for mealybugs and scale. A move is the moment pests spread from one pot to the next inside a shared carton.
Repot the fragile ones into plastic if you have the time. A ceramic or terracotta pot is the thing that breaks, and it weighs more than the plant. A month before is ideal so the plant settles; a week before is still worth it for anything in a pot you like.
Stakes and moss poles: tie the plant to its stake with soft string in two places so it cannot whip about. A tall plant on a moss pole travels tied, upright and last.

The bag round the pot

The one trick that saves the car seat and the lorry floor. Put the whole pot in a plastic bag, a flyer bag or a bin liner sized to the pot, pull the bag up to the base of the stems, and tie or tape it there loosely. Soil stays in, water stays in, and the drainage hole is sealed. Do not close the bag over the leaves; the plant needs air and the leaves sweat.

For a pot with a saucer, the saucer goes in the bag under the pot; it is the item that gets left behind.

Small and medium pots: open cartons

Small pots ride in a carton, and the carton stays open. A once-used single-wall carton sized so that the pots stand shoulder to shoulder is right; if there is room to tip, pack it. Crumpled paper, a fold of PE foam or a rolled towel between pots, and a piece of board cut from a layer pad on the carton floor so a leaking bag does not soften the box.

Leaves out of the top are fine. If the plant is taller than the box, cut the box down or use a taller one; do not fold leaves in. Mark the box LIVE PLANTS and THIS WAY UP on two sides, out of habit, because once it is in the car nobody stacks anything on it. In the box-weight post the rule is under 20 kg; a carton of six damp pots gets there faster than you think, so lift it before you fill it.

Cactus and succulents: gloves, a sleeve of board or a fold of paper round the spiny ones so they do not stab the neighbours, and they are the one group that prefers to be dry for the move. Do not water them the week before.

Orchids: the pot is usually light, the flower spike is the part that snaps. A loose cone of paper or a sleeve of 2 mm foam round the spike, taped to itself, and the pot in the carton with the others.

Big floor pots: the lorry, but last on, first off

A 40 cm glazed pot with a fiddle-leaf fig in it can weigh 30 or 40 kg wet, and it is the one plant that goes in the lorry because it does not fit in a car. Rules:

Water it four days ahead, not the day before. Every litre you do not add is a kilo you do not carry.
Bag the pot as above, right up to the stems; a big pot leaks more than a small one.
Lay a folded bin liner or a piece of stretch film on the lorry floor under it as a drip tray. The floor of a hire lorry has carried everything; your pot is still the thing that will leave a mark on it, and the deposit post covers the equivalent problem on your own floor going out.
Foam the rim. A turn of 5 mm PE foam round the rim of a glazed or ceramic pot, taped to itself; the rim is where it chips, against another pot or a wardrobe.
Tie the crown. Gather the branches gently towards the trunk with soft string or a couple of turns of film over a sheet of paper, so the canopy is narrower than the pot and nothing snags in the doorway. Never film straight onto leaves in this climate; they cook under it.
Upright, wedged, on last. It goes in after the cartons, upright against a wall, with a carton or a mattress wedging it so it cannot tip when the lorry brakes. The lorry post has the loading order; a big pot is a tall item, like the bike, and goes on last and comes off first.
Two people, from underneath. A ceramic pot lifted by the rim breaks at the rim. Carry it with a hand under the base and the other on the side, or on a trolley with the pot strapped.

A short move in a closed lorry, say under an hour of driving and unloaded straight away, a floor pot will tolerate. A lorry that will sit loaded overnight, or an interstate move up the highway, it will not; then the big pot travels on the last run in an open pickup, or it stays and you take cuttings.

What a plant will not tolerate

A closed carton. Even for an hour. Leaves out of the top, always.
The boot of a car in the sun while you go back for another load. Park in the shade or leave the air-con running.
Film straight onto leaves. Paper first, film over the paper, and only for the hours of the move.
Being unpacked last. They come out of the car first, into shade, and get watered lightly that evening. The unpacking-order post puts the kitchen and beds first; plants are the one exception, because they need ten minutes, not an afternoon.

Garden plants in the ground

Dig them the day before, keep as much root ball as the plant will lift, wrap the root ball in a wet cloth and then in a plastic bag tied at the stem, and stand them in a carton like potted plants. Most things in a Malaysian garden move happily this way in the cooler evening; a tree does not, and the honest answer for a tree is a cutting or a nursery replacement.

The aquarium

An aquarium move is a four-part job: the fish, the water and the filter, the tank, and the cabinet. Only the tank is a packaging problem, and it is the same problem as a mirror.

The fish and the water

Stop feeding two days before. Fish travel better with an empty gut, and the water in the bags stays cleaner.
Save water. Siphon a third to half of the tank water into clean buckets with lids, or into the food-grade drums sold for exactly this. The point is not that old water is magic; it is that the filter bacteria and the water chemistry the fish are used to travel with you, and the new tank starts as close to the old one as you can manage.
Bag or bucket the fish in old tank water, a third water and two thirds air, with the bag closed and stood upright in a carton or a cool box so it cannot roll. Small fish in fish-shop bags, a few per bag; big fish, one to a bucket with a lid, and a battery air pump if you have one. A cool box with the lid ajar is the best carrier in this climate. Bags stand in a once-used carton with paper packed round them so they do not tip.
The filter media stays wet. Take the sponge or the ceramic rings out of the filter and put them in a bag of tank water, sealed. Dry filter media is dead filter media, and a dry filter is why a tank crashes a week after a move.
Plants from the tank go in a bag of tank water too, or wrapped in wet newspaper in a bag.
In the car, with the air-con on, on the floor behind the front seats, not on a seat and not in the boot. The car goes straight to the new house; the fish are the first thing carried in, and they wait in the coolest room with the bags floating in the refilled tank for twenty minutes before you release them.

Emptying the tank

A tank is moved empty to the glass. Not half full, not with the gravel in. A 3-foot tank holds somewhere between 100 and 180 litres depending on its depth, which is 100 to 180 kg of water; the silicone seams and the bottom pane are not built to carry that while the tank flexes in someone’s arms, and a tank that survives the lift often leaks a week later. So:

Fish, water and filter out as above.
Decorations, heater, filter and lights out, bagged and labelled. Let the heater cool before it comes out of the water.
Gravel or substrate out, into buckets or double flyer bags, with a little tank water over it so the bacteria in it stay alive. A bucket of wet gravel is 15 kg or more; two buckets, not one.
Sponge the tank out, wipe the glass, dry the outside so the foam and board go on dry.

Packing the tank like a mirror

Now it is a box made of glass, and it packs exactly as the mirrors post describes:

A sheet of 5 mm PE foam over each of the four sides and the base, held with tape to itself, never to the glass or the silicone.
Two pieces of double-wall layer pad cut a little larger than the front and back panes, one on each face, and a strip folded over each vertical edge. Corners are where a tank cracks; a fold of 5 mm foam on each corner under the board.
Film in bands round the whole sandwich, and a piece of board across the open top so nothing can be dropped into it.
Inside, the tank is empty. Do not fill it with cushions or the gravel; weight inside a glass box on the move is the crack.
Mark it GLASS and THIS WAY UP; a tank travels on its base, never on its side or on the top rim, and a small one is carried on its base too, arms underneath, never by the rim. The plastic frame on a budget tank is a trim, not a handle.

A tank up to about 2 feet fits in a large once-used double-wall carton with foam on the floor of the box; above that it travels as a sandwich, wedged between mattresses or against the wall of the lorry, upright, with nothing stacked on it. A 4-foot or larger tank is a two-person carry and a mover’s job to load; tell the crew it is glass and empty before they touch it.

The cabinet and the stand

The cabinet is furniture and goes as the furniture post says: doors taped shut over a strip of foam, corners padded, film to hold it. Keep the tank and its cabinet apart in the lorry; a tank sitting on a cabinet in a moving lorry is how both get damaged.

Setting up on the day

Cabinet level first, on a floor that will take the weight: a full 3-foot tank with gravel and cabinet can be well over 150 kg on four small feet. Tank on, gravel in, saved water in, filter media back in the filter, heater and filter running, then the bags floated and the fish released. A tank set up the same day with the saved water and the wet filter media usually carries on as if nothing happened; a tank left empty for a week has to cycle again from the start.

Plants and aquarium checklist

Pots watered three or four days ahead; succulents left dry
Every pot in a bag tied at the stem, saucer inside the bag
Small pots snug in an open once-used carton, board on the floor of the box, gaps packed, leaves out of the top
Spines sleeved, orchid spikes coned, stakes tied
Big pots: rim foamed, crown tied over paper, bin-liner drip tray, upright and wedged, last on and first off, lifted from the base
Living things in the car with the air-con on, never the boot, never a closed lorry
Fish not fed for two days; a third to half of the tank water saved in lidded buckets
Fish in bags or lidded buckets of tank water, upright in a carton or cool box
Filter media and tank plants in bags of tank water, sealed
Gravel in buckets with a little water, two buckets not one
Tank emptied to the glass, wiped dry, foam on all faces, board front and back, corners foamed, film in bands, board over the top
Tank on its base, carried from underneath, nothing on it, cabinet separate
Tank set up the same day; plants out of the car first, into shade, watered lightly that evening

FAQ

Can I put my plants in the moving lorry?

Small and medium pots should not go in a closed lorry body in Malaysia; the heat inside a parked lorry kills them, and a closed carton is worse. They ride in the car with the air-con on, in open cartons with the leaves out of the top. A big floor pot that will not fit in a car can go on the lorry for a short move if it is watered days ahead, bagged, foamed at the rim, loaded upright and last, and unloaded first.

How do I stop soil spilling when I move potted plants?

Water three or four days before the move rather than the day of, so the soil is damp and firm instead of wet and sliding. Then put each pot in a plastic bag, a flyer bag or a bin liner, pull it up to the base of the stems and tie it loosely there. The bag seals the drainage hole and keeps the soil and any drips inside. Put a piece of cardboard on the floor of the carton the pots stand in.

How do I move fish to a new house?

Stop feeding them two days before. On the day, siphon a third to half of the tank water into lidded buckets, bag the fish in tank water with plenty of air, stand the bags upright in a carton or a cool box, and drive them in the car with the air-con on. Keep the filter sponge or rings in a bag of tank water so the bacteria survive. Set the tank up the same day with the saved water, float the bags for twenty minutes, then release the fish.

Can you move an aquarium with water in it?

No. Even a small tank should be emptied to the bare glass, gravel included. The silicone seams and the bottom pane are not built to carry water while the tank flexes in someone’s arms, and a tank that survives the lift often leaks days later. Empty it, dry the outside, pad it with PE foam and cardboard like a mirror, and carry it on its base from underneath, never by the rim.

Should I take the plants out of the pots to move them?

No. A plant moves best undisturbed in its own pot. The only exceptions are plants in the ground, which are dug the day before with the root ball wrapped in a wet cloth and a bag, and plants in a heavy or fragile ceramic pot, which are better moved into a plastic pot a few weeks before the move so the pot is not the thing that breaks.

Materials for the plants and the tank

The plant and aquarium part of a move uses a few metres of PE foam in 2 mm for orchid spikes and 5 mm for pot rims and the tank, a layer pad or two for the carton floors and the tank sandwich, flyer bags as pot bags in the smaller sizes, a roll of stretch film, and open once-used Grade A cartons from RM1.10. Quinocycle sells the cartons and the padding; the buckets, the fish bags and the cool box are the fish shop’s department, and we would rather say so than pretend a carton keeps a fish alive. Delivery is free on orders above RM300 across KL and Selangor.

For the rest of the house, the box count story works out the cartons. If you would rather send a list, WhatsApp +60 16-891 6381 or contact us with the number of pots and the tank size, and we will suggest quantities. We are open Monday to Friday 9am–5pm and Saturday 9am–1pm.