We don't have 20 foot raceways as QT tanks. That would be a terribly inefficient use of space and would not allow us to tailor treatments to individual animals based on need. We generally use 20g highs and 30g for most of our QTs, depending on the animal and department (obviously larger animals who need more space get it). Each tank has its own heater and HOBs for filtration (some of our longer-term QTs even use RUGFs). The systems are incredibly simple, and some might even call them rudimentary.. but they have the basics covered and provide the fish with a perfectly acceptable environment.
Also, it's rare that anyone with a MS or higher gets involved with the day to day of quarantining animals (unless it's one of our endangered species or a large animal like a shark or ray). An exhibit curator or head aquarist will usually write up QT procedure, but most of the work is done by volunteers or interns. This stuff is not done by scientists because it's not rocket science, it's basic aquarium husbandry with a focus on sterilization. Because people like
@Humblefish choose to share their knowledge and expertise with us, we can have a similar relationship in the hobby: people with experience write the posts or articles, people without experience (like you, me, or anyone else reading these forums) can do what they say.
With QT, 97% is not good enough. If you want to keep your tanks 100% disease-free, you have to follow the procedure 100%. And that still may not be enough. Perspective is everything with QT. I've run into many reefers who truly believe that it's impossible to keep some diseases out of a tank. These reefers usually don't QT well, if at all, and unsurprisingly have problems with diseases in their tanks. On the other side of that coin is an institution like the Aquarium. We have some tanks with hundreds of fish. Some fish are old and have been in captivity for 10 or 20 years (or longer). Introducing disease into one of these displays would be catastrophic. In most of our tanks, we would literally need divers to remove all the animals to treat them if our QT procedure was ineffective. As a result, the Aquarium's mindset is "no disease or parasite can ever make it into any tank, ever." And unsurprisingly, with thorough QT and medication when appropriate, no diseases make it into any of our displays.
There's not a correct answer here. Aquarists have and will continue to choose management or eradication based on their circumstances. It is not correct, however, to say that QT and medication is stressful. If you do it right, it's not any more stressful than living with a bacterial or parasitic infection for the rest of their lives. It is also not fair to say that QT is not worth it because you won't eradicate the disease if you don't do it correctly. If you don't drive your car correctly, you'll crash; that's not a good argument to not drive. If you are incredibly busy and cannot afford the space or time for QT, I completely understand and don't hold it against you. This is not proof that only 1% of reefers can eradicate ich from powder blue tangs. Proper QT will eradicate ich from any fish. If you cannot QT properly, again, that's fine, but you won't eradicate the ich. This is not evidence that QT doesn't work or isn't worth it.
First I heard you say your in the process of setting up a bunch of tanks and now this little teaser;Muted;Spiderman
