IMHO, QT is useless… Hear me out;
I have seen MANY people using QT as a way to prevent disease such as Ich and Velvet. However many of the times they do it… They end up with it anyway. I’ve had 10x more success without QT than I have with QT. I used to QT in the LFS however I still got disease from those fish even after they went through a heck of a QT process.
I now just use natural moves. For example I keep my water parameters stable all the time in my 4’ tank and I have yet to face a disease or issue that will wipe out an entire tank. I had some nasty injuries on my Cirrhilabrus naokoae in July, moved him to my 4’ tank where parameters are stable constantly and he is still with me today. Using just the basics of reef keeping can help you to have fish that thrive, if you really want a 100% sterile tank then you’ll need to QT everything, rocks, coral frags, even the sand. Absolutely everything will need to be QTed if you want a no disease zone.
This is why I just make sure my fish don’t get stressed when they’ve got wounds (It lessens the likelihood of them getting parasites/diseases because a disease will kill a weak fish and rarely a healthy fish). If a fish is already weak and not good then it’s just known that they’ll be more likely to get the disease first than a much healthier fish that stays fat all the time. I also make sure that the fish don’t run out of a natural food source, their natural food source will give them more nutrients than our prepared foods will give them. When I feed them they get additional nutrients (I try to give them all of the nutrients I can give them without bombing the tanks). Often signs of a malnourished fish are with their colours, some colours will naturally fade however the main colours shouldn't as the colours are boosted by nutrients we give the fish.
