Quarantine idea.

Ok. if they are very stressed from the Ich i would QT. How long has the ich been noticeable? Your right that if you have ich in your tank you will always have it unless you let the tank go fallow. But i think of ich as the chicken pocks or mono. Once the fish gets it they will usually always have it (unless treated w/med) but with a good diet and strong immune system can keep it from breaking out and getting sick. granted there are differences between the comparisons but i think the idea is similar.
My hippo got ich and i just added garlic and some vitamins to the food and he got better in a few weeks. I havnt seen him have any signs of it in over a year now.

 

also a cool little thing you can do hook your hose for water changes up to a UV sterilizer and siphon your gravel and rock with that. Kind of a pin point UV thing. but note that siphoning your gravel through UV will kill a beneficial stuff as well.

 

yup, what fischkid2 said is on the money.

 

Thanks fischkid I have heard this opinion a lot and do agree. My problem is I just started stocking my tank and am no where close to being fully stocked. What happens when I get a new fish. When I put him in my tank he will be in a vulnerable state and most likely be hit with ich bad right? Dunno what to do really.

 

so... while not saying you are wrong per se... IMO, it's not possible to rid a tank of ich... it will always be there... much like the cold virus. the trick is keeping the fish healthy enough to not be bothered by it. The same your immune system keeps the cold virus (most of the time) from bothering you.

even a 6 week fallow tank won't rid the tank of ich... it'll just let it run its cycle, but the spores are still going to be there... lurking... waiting...

If the fish are healthy and low stressed, the ich won't be able to take hold.



The advise you got about using the garlic etc... that's the route I'd take here. Have the QT ready to go, sure...