In terms of the test strips vs liquid, what makes them less accurate? Is it harder to read them correctly to get a result or are they inherently less accurate because of the reaction? What I mean to say is if you're careful with reading them, could you use them instead of liquid? I ask because they seem less complicated.
Most in the hobby consider liquid test kits more reliable than test strips. This alone convinced me to acquire liquid test kits and I have never used test strips. Strips are better than nothing, but they can deteriorate due to temperature, moisture in the air, and such. Liquid regents do not have this problem, though they do or may become less reliable after time. The API kits have dates on them.
Filling a test tube up to the 5 ml line around the tube is not difficult, and then adding a certain number of drops is not difficult. And you can rely more on the results.
On the question of quarantine of new fish. For 20+ years I never quarantined. I may have been lucky, but it is also a fact that farm-raised fish today are far more susceptible to difficult diseases than was the case in the past. Then I acquired a group of tetras that certainly appeared healthy; within one week half of them were dead and I ended up losing 1/3 of the fish I had kept in that tank for years. It turned out to be an internal protozoan; there is absolutely no way to discern internal issues like protozoan or bacterial in most cases as they can have no external symptoms until the fish suddenly dies. I now QT new fish for several weeks. It can be weeks before fish succumb to such problems. I keep farm raised fish in the QT for 5-6 weeks minimum. Wild caught fish generally 2-3 weeks. Since I began this practice four years ago after that issue mentioned, I have not lost any of my existing fish to introduced disease; my wild caught fish have adjusted well. I rarely acquire farm fish now.
Something needs to be said about the quarantine tank. Here we are talking a separate tank to quarantine new fish acquisitions for a period of time, as opposed to a hospital tank to treat a fish for some specific disease. These are two very different things, and should be handled very differently.
Use a smallish aquarium for the QT of new fish. If the fish is expected to live in that space for several weeks, it needs to be more than a pail or container. It needs to be a proper environment for that species. If not, the fish will only suffer further stress, and be less likely to get over it. There should be a substrate (fish "expect" this, so it is more stress if not present), some décor (it can be artificial or real wood and/or rock), and floating plants. Not only do live plants use ammonia and thus keep the water in better condition, they shade the overhead light and this is crucial for many forest fish.
My QT for new fish is a 20g planted tank that runs permanently. It may have no fish in it for months, but I still keep it running with weekly partial water changes. This had a couple of considerable advantages. It provides an environment immediately that is established and identical to that in the display tank that the fish will eventually be moved into, so that reduces secondary stress a lot. It also means the fish are immediately placed in a stable environment, further reducing stress; the stress of fish being captured, held, transported, dumped into a store tank with in most cases a completely inappropriate environment (water parameters, conditions, aquascape, space) is very significant. Ending this stress as soon as possible will always benefit. But even when a permanent tank cannot be provided, it is very important to make the temporary tank as "home-like" as possible. You will save fish.
