ich/treatment/knife fish

Question
We have a 29 gallon tropical fish tank, which we just set up two weeks ago. We found that our fish (gourmis and black tip tetras) had ich. We also had a black ghost knife. we know to be very careful with the knife and medication. We decided to use salt treatment. We lost all our fish other than the knife prior to treatment. my biggest question is how do you know for absolutely sure that you have rid the tank and only remaining fish of the ich? Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

Answer
With a Knife you do have to be very careful and salt will mess with your fish in my opion. This is what I would do, go out to your Local Fish Store and buy a not so strong medication just for treating ich. See what your Local Fish Store thinks about which medication would work best(I only do Cichlids and I use something different than for tropicals which I don't have)for your tank. I would try CLOUT if there IS NO FISH IN THE TANK ALREADY!Clout is a very strong drug that could kill easily with tropicals. Follow the directions: 1 tablet per 10 gallons of water. So 3 for your tank. But this is what you really need to follow if you went with the drug of clout. Remember to take the carbon out of your tank and have no fish in the tank for this cycle :)

1st Day- Treat with three tablets of clout(dissolve in a cup with water before adding it into your tank and also take the carbon out of your filter)

2nd Day- Do nothing

3rd day-Treat wit clout at half strength.

4th day-Do nothing

5th day- Do a 80% water change in your tank and then treat with clout at full steaght.

Day 6- Do nothing

Then you should wait about another 4-7 days before restocking with ANY fish. Now this is the VERY safe way to get rid of ich with. Make sure thought there is no fish in the tank during this process just to be safe. :)