I
think I had some Ich on one of my Bala Sharks, but now I'm not so sure. Anyway, I had dosed for three days 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. I mixed it up real well so it all dissolved in water and then slowly added it to the tank over the course of several hours. The next couple days I dosed that, I just dumped it all in at one time, because I was impatient. Screw it, just dump it in, dissolved of course. Then I stopped dosing and left it there for about 2 weeks. I did do a water change in between, but I just dosed the salt again. Best to get a hydrometer so you know exactly when your salinity reaches acceptable levels to kill the Ich but not to "hurt" anything else more than necessary.
It didn't hurt my catfish (Ottos, Plecos, Banjo), and my Cryptocorne Ciliata was pretty much unphased. I'm not sure if this was from the salt or not, because I was keeping close attention, but I did notice some stems, the upper part, of my Rotala Indica turning brown. They're fine now, after I did a big water change and remove a lot of the salt in the water. They didn't die or anything. The fish weren't adversely affected either. My Bala Sharks even got rid of all that white mucous, I call them boogers, around their nose. I think it was the salt that did the trick.
I'm not going to use meds unless I absolutely have to. People have had success with plants using Rid-Ich and Aquarisol, but I don't trust it, plus I don't want to discolor my water and or stain the silicone and whatnot. Most meds have malachite green or formalin in then, and I don't want to be dosing poisons in my tank. I've heard about bad long-term effects of fish introduced to those meds. I saw a link on Cichlid-Forum to an article on salt. Read it, it's pretty good.
http://petfish.net/tsalt.htm
