Fishless Cycle With Bottled Bacteria-Help

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gale

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I started cycling before but then decided to get the Dr Tim's bacteria (because I wasn't sure if the safestart I had was kept at the right temp) so I put it on hold. When I restarted it I didn't add ammonia again since it was already at 2+ ppm. I'm using RO water and added seachem flourish for minerals. I just bought some live plants today and will add those tonight. Here's what has gone on so far-this is from day 1 of my NEW cycling adventure:
 
Day 1 - (already had ammonia added from before) ammonia 2 ppm, nitrites 0, nitrates 0. Added 2 capfuls of bacteria

Day 2 - Ammonia 1.5, nitrites 0, pH 7.4
Day 3 - ammonia 1.5, nitrites 0, pH 7.4
Day 4 - did nothing (it was a busy day)
Day 5 - ammonia 1, nitrites 0, pH 7.6
Day 6 - added 5 drops of ammonia (this after asking dr tim's support and didn't hear back until the next day) and 2 more capfuls of bacteria
Day 7 - ammonia 3, nitrites 0, pH 7.2
Day 8 - ammonia 2, nitrites 0, pH 7.4
Day 9 - ammonia 2, nitrites 0, pH 7.4. Added some tetra safe start plus (because I have it on hand and was told you can't overdose the bacteria)
Day 10 - ammonia 2, nitrites 0, didn't test pH after this
Day 11 and 12 - did nothing
Day 13 - ammonia 1+, nitrites 0
Day 14 and 15 - did nothing
Day 16 - ammonia .5, nitrites 0, nitrates around 10. Added 4 drops of ammonia
Day 17 (today) - ammonia .5, nitrites 0
 
Since I added ammonia and 24 hours later it's only .5, should I add it again? I've read that there may not be a nitrite spike while using the bottled bacteria-does anyone have experience with that? Or maybe it happened to be on the days I didn't test. Should I start testing daily? Someone on another forum told me to add a fish. Is my tank ready for a fish? I didn't think it was. 
 
side note- I think KH and GH are around 3-4. It's hard to determine because the color is so light. 

 
 
Wait for the ammonia to drop to 0.25 ppm or lower. Then dose ammonia again. No sense adding more bacteria, really. You are rolling now. They can double in a day under the right conditions.

Do NOT add a fish until both ammonia and nitrite drop to zero 24 hours after adding the ammonia dose. No sense in putting a fish in harms way.

Why are you using RO?
 
My well water is really bad. Not even fit to drink to be honest (not dangerous for humans but not good at all for fish-I get horrible lime and calcium deposits bad enough to ruin filters and really high copper and iron). In the house we use soft water (not for drinking or cooking) and I don't think that's good for fish either (and I still get a lot of iron staining in my sinks and toilets). Since I only have two 5 gallon tanks it's cheap enough to just buy water from town for water changes. The town water dispensers are all RO filtered town water. 
 
My ammonia has been the same (around .5) for 4 days now. Is my cycle stalled? I've been kicking around the idea to buy one of those sponge filters mentioned in the fish-in cycle sticky. The ones that have beneficial bacteria in them. It would be a good time to ship since it's not too hot or too cold right now. Would that help?
 
.5 again tonight. That's about 6 days at that same value or close to it. Before this it never stayed that long. Is there something different I need to do? It has cooled off the past few days so I turned the heater on. Anything else I can try?
 

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