Goldfish with Ich

Question
Hi,  What would be the proper way to treat my goldfish that has ich and do you think he can survive?  I have a 3wk new 10 gallon tank with a comet goldfish.  I have had the water checked regularly. I also have a thermometer in the water.  I leave the light on from morning to night, turn it off before bed.  It's on about 13 hrs.  He has been doing very well and even growing.  I had some algae growing on a rock. The people at the pet store told me to keep the light off all but a few hours a day.  Well I did that and then within a couple of days my goldfish got white salt like spots on it's fins.  I went that night to the store and they gave me Ick Clear.  I have done 2 treatments so far, following the directions,(water change, remove carbon from filter).  As of today he seems to be worse. More ich has appeared, he's floating near the top, not really eating or responding to me like he did.  I know he isn't feeling well, but is there anything else I should be doing? and do you think he can survive this?

Answer
Ich has a nine day life cycle... by this I mean that the parasite that is Ich lives for only nine days.  Eight of those nine days it is immune to medication.  If you raise the temperature in the tank it will reduce ICH's life cycle to 3-4 days and you will have a better chance of killing it off with medication. For a goldfish I would raise the temperature to about 78 degrees.  What probably happened is that when you reduced the light the water cooled and triggered the Ich infestation.  Ich needs a drop in temperature to activate. Ich is present in tap water so every aquarium has it in it but without the chill it stays dorment.  Raise the temperature, treat with Ich medication such as the one you have, and add aquarium salt to the water. Keep me posted on his progress.  If you can not get a heater for his tank... then try to use a light to heat his water... but durring treatment you will need to keep the temperature constant.  dave