Speed the process by adding your own pure ammonia. It HAS to be pure. A good way to think about it is for the first month of a new tank, you are raising bacteria, not fish. The bacteria must be fed, just as any other living organism. You can get a nice ammonia spike, then once all the ammonia is consumed it goes to zero, nitrites go up, then down to zero, all seems well. Not always the case. You have to continually introduce the ammonia to continue to feed and grow the colony that you have established. If the colony that you established cannot handle the bio load after your "cycle", then you start all over. Youll add fish and get a mini cycle and come home to dead fish. When the ammonia goes to zero, dose it again with pure ammonia up to about 3-5ppm. Let it go again. When you see that your tank can consume 3-5ppm of pure ammonia in about 12 hours, and your nitrites are zero, then you can do that big water change and add all the fish your tank can handle. Youre better off getting a massive overkill of bacteria to insure that your bio load will not exceed the bacteria colony you have established.
