How do you keep them from getting the ick?

Freshwater is fairly easy. You could probably get set up nice for $200. Frustrating at first getting the tank going. You'll lose some fish for a month or two. Once you get things stabilized, assuming you have some hearty varieties, its pretty simple. Maybe 30 minutes/ month to do a cleaning.

I have successfully had both freshwater and saltwater aquariums. Not in the last 15 years or so. I imagine sea salt mixes and all hosts of support equipment have vastly improved.

Filters are better. Sea salt is sea salt

Its typically an ailment of stressed fish in an inappropriate environment. Ick is present in almost every aquarium but the fish immune system fights it off. If the fish is stressed due to improper Ph, temperature, high nitrates, nitrites, or ammonia it will have a depressed immune system and may fall victim to this.
Ick is a parasite. It is typically suspended in the water.
All that being said, I have a UV sterilizer that runs 24/7. It will kill pathogens in the water column and reduce the chances of a breakout.
All other water parameters are closely monitored. I spend about 30 minutes a week doing water tests.

That's a very nice setup. A long time ago I had a 55 gallon fresh-water tank at home, and it was very nice, it always got compliments from visitors, but you really have to be on the ball keeping it nice and clean and keeping the ph right and all that. As nice a feature as a well-cared for tank is, a neglected tank is a real turn-off and it doesn't take long to go there. Our tank never got neglected, but once we had kids and I started working more hours and i started having to make choices about what hobbies to keep and what to drop, the tank had to go. Now that our kids are grown, seeing this post makes me want to dabble in it again. I like the "real plants" angle. I always used fake stuff, are the real plants totally easy to deal with or do they have their own set of problems?

If I get a tank can I hire someone to maintain it?

That's a very nice setup. A long time ago I had a 55 gallon fresh-water tank at home, and it was very nice, it always got compliments from visitors, but you really have to be on the ball keeping it nice and clean and keeping the ph right and all that. As nice a feature as a well-cared for tank is, a neglected tank is a real turn-off and it doesn't take long to go there. Our tank never got neglected, but once we had kids and I started working more hours and i started having to make choices about what hobbies to keep and what to drop, the tank had to go. Now that our kids are grown, seeing this post makes me want to dabble in it again. I like the "real plants" angle. I always used fake stuff, are the real plants totally easy to deal with or do they have their own set of problems?

If I get a tank can I hire someone to maintain it?

If I get a tank can I hire someone to maintain it?

Ok so plants. This may be tldr so proceed at your own risk.
Plastic plants are detrimental to most fish. This is due to their texture. They can get torn fins and damaged scales from them. They're no longer recommended.
Silk plants are a better artificial alternative.
Live plants have a lot of benefits. They use nitrogen wastes from the fish as fertilizers (ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, if theres questions of the nitrogen cycle I will address that). So eventually in a balanced aquarium you will find increasing levels of nitrates. The onmy way to remove these is with water changes and metabolic consumption by live plants.
Are they hard? Depends on the plants. I have java moss ( that's the stuff on the middle trees and the UFO on the bottom mid left) windelov java fern (front left and right) anubia (spade shaped leaves on mid back left) and another strain of java fern in the back left. The moss is fairly fast growing. Originally i had a baseball sized clump that I put on the driftwood trees and it grew into that in a month, and I now harvest a baseball size clump in trimmings every month or so. I gave away as much as I could to friends with aquariums but now I got so much i either toss it or give it to my fish store in exchange for a buck or two off purchases.
These are low light requiring plants and thusly work well in this aquarium. I use an automatic led light with sunrise, sunset, night and mid day siesta times programmed in to reduce algae growth.
As far as algae goes, planted aquariums have considerably less algae because the plants outcompete algae for nutrients.

I went with real plants for a couple years and for whatever reason it made things more difficult. Had to change water quite a bit more. I think there is a problem in that the optimal temperatures for nice fish and nice plants are not the same.

Oh and not quite on same page with Darko...you need to have the lights on more to keep the plants alive but that leads to more algae.

I think it depends how much time you want to spend on it. Like I said I allocate 30 minutes/month tops.

Oh yes. I used to do that myself. I did doctors offices, dentists offices, shit like that. There are many services. That being said... a 55 gallon freshwater setup takes an hour a week of maintenance once you're set up. Once a quarter you might spend an extra hour cleaning a canister filter. Its actually kind of fun in my opinion.
You have micro dudes right? Teaching microdudes about chemistry with the water chemistry testing is educational.
Also, with microdudes, there is a nice life lesson on the circle of life. We watch live fish being born. We've seen baby fish get eaten. We've had a couple losses. This is the way of things and a valuable lesson.

I went with real plants for a couple years and for whatever reason it made things more difficult. Had to change water quite a bit more. I think there is a problem in that the optimal temperatures for nice fish and nice plants are not the same.

Oh and not quite on same page with Darko...you need to have the lights on more to keep the plants alive but that leads to more algae.

I think it depends how much time you want to spend on it. Like I said I allocate 30 minutes/month tops.

Since it's fun would you do it for me for free?

interesting. Can you get away with changing the water a little at a time, say a few gallongs on a weekly basis, so it isn't as shocking to the fish, or do you have to do a more significant water change?

interesting. Can you get away with changing the water a little at a time, say a few gallongs on a weekly basis, so it isn't as shocking to the fish, or do you have to do a more significant water change?