4fords gonna kill me for saying so but my achilles tang had ich on day one and I put him directly into my 225....not a single loss.
He was always a pig.
The only thing unique about my system is flow (up to 17,000 gallons per hour at times) and I was using massive amounts of ozone through a pressurized Ozone reactor when I introduced him.
I now run run smaller amounts of ozone and a nitrate reactor and continuous water changes...but I often break the rule and add fish directly to my display even w him in it.
That said, don't do what I do....lol.
Edit. I can't comment on the ling term success as I have had him only 10 months.
A few observations.
1) Eats like a pig
A) Cannot out eat the hippo, he can't swallow whole pieces of nori like a hippo or my old two bar rabbit so to make sure he gets his share I have to something like an innovative marine algae grid or sprinkle it in in front of a Vortech ....if it's on a clip the hippo takes it all.
2) Most active fish I have.
3) He is the bully of the tank and dominates over a yellow, a fox face a sail fin, and a blue hippo that is actually both bigger and thicker.
To tell the truth the achilles is kinda an ****** in my tank but is suspect that dominate personality in my specimen some how accounts for my success with my I'll advised husbandry as he isn't as susceptible to as much stress being the king.
Any time I notice any sign of the scratches on any fish...which isn't often...i put my ozone to turbo for a few days and nuke the ORP into the 500 range....never see spots.
I also feed 3 to 4 times a day with variety of different foods as I work from home a lot.
If stability is ever shown to help it's noteworthy my my temp isn't allowed to ever swing much more than 0.5 a degree, my ph barely ever goes less than 8.2 or above 8.3, my salinity is tightly controlled between 34 and 35, and I maintain similar control over alk, v
Ca and run an elevated mag.
I don't do qt that often and treat my fish with the same philosophy as my kids...i expose them to any and every germ to boost their immunity...lol.
It's a joke....fish leaned immunity isn't as effective as a humans learned immunity to bacteria is and immunity from parasites is not as effective in any species.
If I had livestock loss i had already planned to add a giant UV to my system but this far it hasn't been necessary.
I also over feed. Once or twice a week I'll put so much nori in the fish can't eat...they will swim up and look at it and just can't eat any more.
That takes some doin when you have 4 tangs and a foxface.
I may have to add a Naso just to help...lol.
I don't even worry about all the uneaten pieces of nori with those 5 fish forage all day and if they don't find it I have a brittle star, 4 peppermints a blood red and 30 or so crabs that will find it.
Here are a few shots
