QT newbie

[cla337]

I know this has been covered a million times. I have a 2 clowns, a royal grama, 6 line, 2 cromis for 2-4 yrs. These fish have never exibited ich...lucky me.
But now, I'm upgrading tanks. And when I do I'll also be upgrading fish and I want to try and QT. I'm wondering if I should QT my existing fish. I understand that some fish just succumb to ich more easily than others. But if ever there was some ich swimming in my tank, they would need a fish host...if the fish never exhibited symptoms for this long, is it safe to say that they've never been hosted? Thus, the life cycle broken. And Thus, so far I am ich free?
I've had some really crappy water at times (neighbors doing bad babysitting).
And I'm pretty sure I stress the crap out of my fish (inconsistent water changing, 2 part alk and calc, inconsistent feeding, hotter days, sloppy salinity monitoring) I have corals too.

I want a powder brown, and knowing tangs a susceptible, I want to properly QT it. I just don't want to do all that, and then add it to a main tank that does in fact still have ich lurking on some very hardy fish.

 

[Jerry W]

IMO, you're safe to add the existing fish to the new tank w/o quarantine. It is theorized that some fish build up an immunity to ich, but if the fish were susceptible or the parasite was present in your system, they would have likely shown symptoms. Sounds as though they are all healthy. THe main concern would be infecting them via any new fish that you introduce, but with proper quarantine (a very good decision on your part), you should be able to avoid problems.

 

[cla337]

1) is hypo sufficient, must I do copper, or whatever else?
2) I understand hypo for 4-6 weeks is to wait out the lifecycle in the main tank before providing a host by having fish in the tank. However, assuming if non in the main tank, and hypo kills whatevers on the new fish, then I don't have to wait out the life cycle in the tank. Why 4-6 weeks. Is it for good measure, or is it bc the disease only dies from hypo during one part of it's lifecycle- thus making sure it reaches that period while under hypo.

3)Also, I have some aptasia LR that I'm going to cook up- before I do, can I use this in the hypo QT for nitrification, or would that just give ich a place to hide? I really don't plan on too many new fish at this point, so I want to QT a few new ones at the same time.

4) Do mandarins need QT this since they are super resistant.