ich/ick treatments, cures, and remedies?

[awilson0001]

i have ben in a long standing fight with this thing we call Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. is that what its called? okay, maybe ich or ick...
i had it show up on a loach one day and that was it, it stayed, it moved in and brought the family too.
because i have loaches in this tank and a fire eel, i can not just treat it as a normal case. "scaleless fish need a special dose", "scaleless fish cant be medicated the same". i also heard they actually have tiny scales, but that doesnt matter. point is, i love my tank, and i do not want to harm any of them.

what have i done? well, in fear of the loaches being hurt, i tried to raise the temp of the water. i didnt see any after like 86 degrees. lower it back down and BAM... it comes back. i raised it again, added some salt, and again it came back. each time i left the temp up for a good three weeks and saw no ich for well over a week and a half before lowering it; and each time it returned.

after many trials, i raised the temp to near 90 degrees and added salt in a heavier dose. i got that from a forum some place. it seemed to work. can you believe i went through all that? well, the salt method was over 4 or 5 months ago. after many water changes with no salt, i have been gradually working the temp down closer to about 78. all was good for a long time. and once i got to about 78... guess what i got now?

what a story this is. anyone else have loaches in their cichlid tank and treat them for ich?
what has worked for you?

[smitty]

I would just raise the temp again. Sometimes it seem as though it is stubborn to get rid of. I would do a water change first then up the temp bak to 87-90.

[awilson0001]

i have started raising it already. i do a weekly water change of 50 to 75%.

i think maybe its from adding a fish. problem with cichlids is even with isolating them for weeks after buying them to be sure they have no issues, they seem to not show ich if they have any. i guess maybe its cause they are a hardier fish... is it true that even hardier fish can have ich but it just doesnt show due to the thickness of scales etc?