Questions about new quarantine tank

[sighthoundlover]

After having a disater with Marine Velvet in my 75 gallon tank several months ago :evil: , I started over . My 75 gallon now has been doing great for 2 months with a common cleaner shrimp and many hermit crabs and snails. I even have grown two feather duster worms on the live rock! In any case, I decided to be more prudent this time and setup a separate 29 gallon quarantine tank. It took FOREVER to cycle :x but I finally was able to put my first fish in it ( a royal gramma) last Saturday. The theory behind the quarantine, as far as I can determine, is to treat the fish to kill any parasites he may have so you don't introduce trouble into the main tank, and to "toughen him up a bit" and "give him a rest". He's eating fine and the water quality is good but I have questions :? . All the books say "feed lightly" so I've been feeding an itsy, bitsy piece of frozen brine shrimp each day - only once a day. I worry that if I'm supposed to toughen him up I may be doing the opposite by not feeding him enough. I have very low levels of copper in the tank <0.25. I keep feeling sorry for him though, thinking my main tank is so much nicer and he sure would like it better in there but I'm restraining my urge to put him in the tank until the alotted time. Again, the books say the alotted time is about 4 weeks. So can any one give me any tips, thoughts, suggestions, clarifications? I'm all ears.

 

[Johnsteph10]

Many of the books say feed lightly in case the fish isn't eating well and to avoid adding excess nutrients to the tank and stressing the fish even more. You can see how much he's willing to eat and feed just slightly less than that -- ie: don't starve him, but don't turn him into a giganto glutton that can't swim anymore. Make sure to take out any excess food out of the tank if possible.
The idea behind a QT tank is just like you said -- destress the fish, see if parasites show up, etc. Also, it is much easier/quicker to catch the fish than in your 75gallon tank filled with liverock (less stress to move it). You just can't go wrong in QTing fish. I've done it for years with both FW and SW. It has saved me many headaches!
I, however, am hesitant to add all kinds of chemicals to the tank as they are often worse on the fish in the short run than the disease you are treating/preventing. In short, watch the fish. 4 weeks is not unusual -- better to watch and wait than to have to start over.

Thanks for taking the time to do things right!

John