Ich Treatment Options

[spider crab]

Well I'm pretty sure my fish have Ick now. Wasn't sure at first but there are now a number of white spots on my Domino Damsel and sort of a couple of black blemishes on a few scales or two of my yellow tailed blue damsel.
Let me know if you think I've missed diagnosed.
I have live rock and a turbo snail, so I didnt want to use copper treatments in the tank. Short of setting up a hospital tank is there any other treatments that could be applied?
Is my snail at risk?
I understand that that a UV sterilzer can be used to reduce the incidence of white spot. How effective are they at keeping it out of the tank environment? Is it pretty much a guarantee of no Ich or just a reduction in probability? They seem expensive so I wanted to make sure I know what I'm going get out of it if I purchase one.
Oh one last questions: Once the existing fish are treated, do I need to worry about Ich being in the water when new fish arrive?

 

[joshh]

your best bet would be to do a serach on ick. this question has been answerd many times over.
but it sounds like one has white ick and the outher has black

 

[kris]

I wouldn't spring for the uv sterilizer, it's no GUARANTEE that you'll never again have to deal with this. I'm sure it certainly lessens the chance though. There are a few different types of treatment- one of the main however is the qt and doing hyposalinity (where you gradually reduce the sg to a point where the parisites die off.) You are right not to try the whole copper bit--that winds up to be as much a hassle as a help. Thre are products to treat parasites that claim to be safe for most inverts. Kent rxp is the only one I've seen work in a friends tank. She had lr, snails, and one lonely shrimp. They all did well with little sign of any stress and it's never come back either.
Good Luck