Oh - there's a whole slew of info and advice that I'm sure could help you, but it's very easy to get overwhelmed and loose track of what's going on in the moment. ;-) So my best advice is simply to take things slow. Nothing good in this hobby happens fast. Browse around the forums here and read through the stickies of the Disease forum, if you are looking for some more info on problems you may encounter. I found that the first step to being able to keep healthy fish was to be able to recognize what an unhealthy fish looked like. The better I got (get...) at recognizing a problem, the sooner and more aptly I am able to treat it. The stickies - and many of the posts that aren't stickies - are a great place to see (and hopefully prevent) problems before they happen in your tank. And then, of course - don't be afraid to ask questions here on R2R. The entire community is here to help each other through this hobby/love of ours - not a one of us hasn't asked a "stupid question" yet. ;-)
Sorry; I missed that part of the question - and it's important!
Ich and velvet aren't viruses - there is no anti-body to them that the fish develops. There may be something to the idea that they get used to the bother the parasites cause to some degree; sort of like how you can get used to a sore muscle and get on with your day. But that's not really scientific nor guaranteed. So with these parasites, you have to keep them out of the tank to keep your fish safe. Practically, that means proactively treating all fish (because the parasite is actually too small to see with the naked eye) with copper, CP, or TTM, and also keeping all corals, inverts and anything else in a fallow (fish-less) QT tank for 76 days before adding it to your DT. And throughout all of that, making sure to never cross-contaminate or get any aerosol transmission into your DT... It's no small thing to eradicate ich and keep it out of your tank - it's time consuming, more expensive, and takes careful dedication. Which is why most reefers practice some level of ich management rather than full ich eradication.
