wonderful... now I have ich in the 29g!

I had to deal with my first FW ich outbreak earlier this summer with my betta Dragon; he's healed 100% from it and doing well.

now my 29g is infected, though.

the tank is planted, so medicating in the tank is NOT an option. my current stocklist is something like:
4-5 small gold pristella tetras
4-4 cherry barbs
2 harlequin rasboras
1 medium (4" long, 6" high) angel
2" or so bolivian ram
2" or so male platy

now, the only tank I have that I could use is a spare 10g. it would be very crampt, but I dont know what else I could do since I cant treat in-tank, and I have to other spare tanks, and can't go out a buy a new tank, so...

as for treatment, I was planning a 2-3 week treatment course with 3% salt and a temp of around 86.

I'm a bit concerned about the bio-filter, though. I was planning to put their old filter on the 10g with them, but I dont want to destroy the bacterial population and I'm worried the salt might do that?

while the fish stay in the QT tank, the main tank will run fallow, and from what I know/have read should be clear of ich at around week 2.

one option I'd been contemplating- harsh as it may sound- is to euthanize the schooling fish now. they're the worst affected, and seeing as I think the angel has been picking them off at night, it would probably be kinder instead of letting the angel get them. I really wish I had a better solution, but ther's just nothing else I can think of. my parents WONT let be get any other tanks (even a rubbermaid) to treat them in, and I dont really have the room anyways.

as I said before, treating in tank isnt an option since this tank is full of plants.

I dont want to put down the schooling fish, in the 10g they'll probably get killed off by the angel pretty rapidly, and I just dont have anything else I can really do with them. its not as if I can return ich-infected fish to the LFS, and the 10g is pretty much a death sentence for them anyways.

that is why I am posting here- if anyone can think of anything better to do, I'm all for it.

treating in the tank is not better, because it will kill my plants. I'm worried even a few 100% water changes would still leave behind trace amounts of salt in the substrate, and kill the plants.

everything I've read says that even small amounts of salt in the water will cause plant cells to burst and the plants to wither and then die?

also- as to daily 50% water changes and raising the temp to 84 degrees- wont the ich find other places to anchor? from what I've read the heat itself does not kill off the ich, just speeds up the life cycle?

it seems that you were right; short-term exposure to aquarium salt will wilt the plants, but they tend to bounce back fairly quickly.

I think I am going to start raising the heat and adding salt to the tank today. just have to thin out the plant mass a little bit (the plants are EVERYWHERE). hopefully two weeks with high heat and salt will clear this little problem up for me. I will be using a QT tank from now on though, I think.