1) Temprature: Raise your tank temp to 84. Ich can't breed in this temp. Note: But the higher temp will reduce oxygen in your system so run an air stone in the sump during treatment. If you are not sure you have a coral or invert that would find this temprature intolerable, double check it.
2) Feeding: Add garlic to your fishes diet. Medication kills ich. Garlic will not kill ich but the pests don't like the taste so it makes them hop off your fish. It's inconclusive if it will keep new free floating from attaching, so the idea is to get them off and make sure if any hop on they won't stay.
3) Lighting: Reduce your lights to the minimum your corals can handle and stay in good health. Again, do your homework on what your corals will tolerate. Ich can't breed without light, but your filter feeders can't eat without it either. Also, lower lighting affects algae propragation which is not horrible as long as it's temporary. Again, use common sense. If you can give up some lighting without causing any harm, even if only a couple of hours a day, some is better than none. But if you can't, then don't.
4) UV Sterilizer: A UV Sterlizer will kill 80-90% of free floating parasites if 1) the unit is the right size for the tank and 2) you use the correct pump. Flow of water through these units is crucial. It’s important the pump not be too powerful. To determine the right pump, you start with the pump specs on the box and then factor in gravity if the UV unit will be above the pump. When these units first came out it was a nightmare figuring out what pump to get. There is a lot more help with that now.
Preventatives: 1) Operate a UV Sterilizer full time on your tank. 2) If you are feeding frozen foods, most already have garlic in them. If not, get some from your aquairum supplier and add per directions based on volume of food. If you feed dry foods you would have to add a drop and let it soak into the food and then feed. 3) Invest in a small tank for keeping new comers. Everyone in the hobby recommends not putting a new fish in a display until you know that fish is healthy. If there is some reason you can't do this, liveaquaria.com has the best advice in keeping the water the fish comes in out of your tank during aclimation. But don't trust their bag floating advice. They failed to consider surface current in their advice. So clip or wedge bags once opened.
