If it's any help - I went through two bouts of ick.
The first one I yanked the fish out into quarantine, fresh water dips, coppered, etc. Really stressed the fish out and I lost one. Took several months to kick it and spent alot of $ on various medications. I made the mistake of blindly listening to someone who thought they were an expert who was telling me what to do with the fish and insisted that I tear my tank apart, remove all the sand, etc. to get rid of the ick. All that did was blow up my happy system and my nitrates shot way up (I had no nitrate problem prior to that) and I went through an EXTENDED bout battling nuisance algae.
After that I did my own research and came to my own conclusion - there's gonna be ick - it's a matter of whether or not my fish are healthy enough to resist it.
The second round came after I got some new fish - one of which I knew had ick already. No, I don't always do things by the book
I tried a different route. Left them in the tank, but did big water changes every week, and fed them the best food I could to build them up. A couple of times I also added a supplement to the water to help with slime coat. In other words - did what I could to boost the health of the fish and their environment, just like I would do with myself if I felt like I was coming down with something. They kicked it themselves pretty darn quick without all the trauma drama and no losses of anything. That was pretty good considering the ick was worse than the first time!
Couple of weeks later there was a slight flare up (I assume life cycle of the ick) and I continued what I was doing for about 6 weeks, even though I saw no symptoms. Ick disappeared from all the fish and hasn't returned yet. That was over a year ago.
I'm certainly no expert, but that's what did the trick for me. Hope that's helpful to you in your research.
