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I have a 20 gallon tank among my others, that was my first tank, I have always kept it running, sometimes as a hospital/rasing tank for fish for are too small for my bigger one and also it was used to breed livebearers. While the livebearers were in it ick hit and spread quickly, killing everything. I used medicine but there were many babies in the tank so it didn't really do much with how quickly it spread. Recently it was empty until a few days ago I bought two amazon swords which were producing plantlets. I decided to cut the plantlets and raise them in the 20 gallon, I also put 3 danios in to re-cycle/help the plants. Within a day there was visible ick on them. They are in a hospital tank but I want the ick to be gone for good, I can't use too much salt because of the plants and same goes for the temperature. There is ick guard in the tank now but I'm scared that when the medicine is watered down with water changes, the ick will come back.
tl;dr Ick keeps re-appearing, what to do to stop it.
PS i had no fish in the tank for a few weeks a few times hoping the virus wouldn't have anything to feed off of, no dice.

Hi,
Ich, is much like algae spores, they are found everywhere.

The only way to kill off ich after you have an outbreak
is to use the medication (provided you have a good one)
for the full duration of the treatment. It's much like
some of the medications that we take. We get sick, go
see a doctor, who prescribes a medication, which we start
taking, begin to feel better, and then stop taking the
medication before it is completely gone. Keep dosing
the tank with the medication for the full duration, and
many folks will continue even after that for another week.

The length of time it takes for the "eggs" to hatch depends
upon the warmth of the tank. That is why every the directions on every ich medication says to increase the
temperature to a specific temperature. The primary
part of the medication is the element, Copper. Copper
kills Ich. However, it is also a toxic chemical for
fish and plants. Some it will outright kill, and
others it will sicken. So, to kill off the parasite, quickly, and not affect the fish and plants they want to
minimize the exposure to copper, and to do that they
have you increase the temperature of the water to shorten
the exposure to the copper. Once the tank is done with the
treatment, do a 75% water change and another a few days
later. That will dilute the copper in the tank.

Once the fish are free of ich, feed them some quality foods
to rebuild their strength and to encourage the repair of
the spots where the ich parasite burrowed into them. Once
healed, and they resume normal mucus production, they
should be healthy enough to ward off any further attacks.
Only stressed, or weakened fish will fall victim to the
parasite.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Out of pure luck ive heard of a cure for ick which is safe for fish but un sure for plants. But i believe it should b, due to the fact that its garlic. U get garlic cloves smash them up just enough to release the smell and juices and place in a mesh bag, to prevent the garlic from falling apart. The length of time for the treat varies from case to case. It works for both fresh and salt water tanks. The only down side is it will reek of garlic for awhile.