Heh, ya'll are gonna give me a swelled head here. I'm flattered (and again embarrassed) madasa
thanx.
As for cycling a QT tank, you certainly can. I have 2 QT atm, one is fully cycled (and I keep snails in it for the loaches); the other is completely torn down.
The thing to keep in mind with QT tanks, is you do not have to keep em up and running. You can keep extra filter media in your main tank, and pop that into the QT filter when you need it. Means you don't have to have an extra tank taking up space.
Another thing to consider is if you have fish in the QT, unless you remove them when you QT new fish, they become canaries in a coal mine, and if the new fish are sick, chances are they will become ill as well. I'll have to can the snails if I wind up putting a sick fish in that tank (I HATE snails so it wouldn't be a great loss to me
LOL I just keep em right now cause the angels n loaches love em so much).
Lastly, if you DO wind up treating new fish for disease, you'll most likely kill off the bacteria colonies anyway. So you may wind up doing all the extra work cycling the tank for naught.
You can go with a completely uncycled tank. Means a lot of diligence making sure the water is free of nitrogenous wastes. It can be done tho.