Ich is one of the most common ailments in the hobby, and is by far the easiest to treat so it's good to know how to take care of it. Once you've done it a few times you'll see that it's not a big deal. In fact, you'll probably not even start a thread about it.
There are a few different ways to treat it. I am in agreement 110% with logisticguy that raising the temp to at least 86 degrees for two weeks is the best method. Wouldn't that be stressful to the fish, one might ask. The infestation is stressful, as is ANY method of treating it. However, I guarantee that the treatments are less stressful than the infestation itself, and that the relief the fish gets from treatment outweighs the stress of the treatment, whether it be heat or meds. Personally, I have administered the heat treatment to about 50 species of fish from all sorts of families, including cold water fish, and have not found a fish that couldn't handle 2 weeks at 88 degrees. I treat all new fish for ich while in quarantine. Many say you have to change the water and vacuum daily. I have found this to be entirely unnecessary. The treatment kills the parasites - removing them during the treatment is inconsequential. But if you want to do all that then by all means have at it
Me? All I do is plug in the heater (which has been calibrated to take the tank to 88 - the process is slow enough as it is unless you have an overpowered heater) and feed them. That's it. It's really that easy
If you have medicated then you will want to run carbon in order to remove it. However, you don't have to use carbon all the time. Many people only use it for clearing water of medications.
