Two questions.
1) the page that I am linking to is already configured to work through http parameters and has many other pages that link to is as well. Can a page use both at the same time?
A page can use http params and sessions. The http params show up in the url and Sessions are in the memory.
If you have multiple webparts on that page that expect http params then those wp will fail and the wp that expect session would succeed.
You can reconfigure them to use sessions instead. I don't know how complex is your scenario (how many pages you have that use http, how many wp on the page, etc).
2) I have used session variables in the past and have seen that they are not set until I save a list item. Am I just doing something wrong? Tried using a session variable on a create screen with a custom action to open a different URL and the session variables were not set. How would it set here off of the hyperlink?
You're right. But since your qListForm is in View item mode those values are saved and set.
The session is set when you view the item in the qListForm (in View mode).
Please let me know if you still have questions or I was not clear in my answers.