if the tanks bran new take the rock sand out vinegar it let it all dry out put rock sand back in and let your tank re-cycle. The cycle will be faster than waiting for the ich and you can copper treat the fish in the mean time to kill the ich.
Brine shrimp eggs. That sounds awful out of place doesn't it? I can't speak to any scientific research done on ich cysts... but each time I see something like this, all I can think of is brine shrimp eggs. I PERSONALLY wouldn't trust drying it all out, just on the idea that no matter how dry it "feels", I don't think there is a good way to know when its completely dry other than waiting weeks on end. If you are going to wait weeks on end, why not just go fallow? The other option would be to bleach.. again, brine shrimp eggs. Decapping is done with bleach.
I know they aren't the same. But its a fine example of what things in this hobby can go through and still survive. No host for 10 weeks has proven successful for most, and if it were my tank (and it was at one point) I wouldn't rock the boat.