The pH isn't important. You want a steady pH, not a correct pH. Those chemicals to mess with pH are only temporary. If you forget to add it to a water change or forget to dose the tank, the pH still swing back to what it is naturally and stress out your fish (sometimes causing death). pH swings kill fish. Experience speaking here.
Forget the Amquel. Get Seachem Prime. It comes in a red bottle. It renders the ammonia (and nitrite) harmless to your fish, but still available for your beneficial bacteria to use.
Do you know about the nitrogen cycle? If not, here it is in a nutshell...your fish produce ammonia through their waste. Ammonia is also produced by decaying organic matter, such as food. Ammonia is extremely toxic to fish. The presence of ammonia jump-starts the life cycle of a beneficial aquatic bacteria which feeds on the ammonia and turns it into slightly less toxic nitrite. The presence of nitrite jump-starts the life cycle of another beneficial aquatic bacteria which feeds on the nitrite and turns it into nitrate, which is only toxic in very high levels (in the range of 60ppm or higher).
Okay, so now that we know what the cycle is and why it's important, how does it affect us? Since you're doing a fish-in cycle, you need to keep your ammonia levels down so that they don't harm your fish. The best way to do this is with 50% daily water changes with a product like Prime. As I said, the Prime makes it so the ammonia and nitrite don't harm your fish, but keeps it so the bacteria that are required for your tank to cycle can still feed on it. The other way to do a fish-in cycle is to buy a product called Tetra SafeStart. You add one dose (the entire bottle) to the tank and wait seven to ten days. The product contains live beneficial bacteria colonies that help establish your cycle. With either method, you need a good test kit that measures ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Liquid is the best way to go as the strips have been proven inaccurate time and again. API sells a freshwater master test kit that test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and high range pH for around $30. That is the one I recommend. Walmart.com also sells a generic version of the API kit (same exact kit, just with a different label slapped on it) for about $25.
So, how do you know your tank is cycled? When your readings go something like this:
Ammonia-0 ppm (ANY ammonia at all is toxic, even in small amounts)
NitIrite-0 ppm (Same thing goes for nitrIte as ammonia, it's just slightly less toxic)
NitrAte-5-20 ppm (Only toxic in large quantities...this is the best indication that your tank is cycled).
Also, as Kitty Kat stated, your water does not contain any beneficial bacteria. You filter media, substrate and decor do. This is why you don't change out your filter media until it is literally falling apart (and even then you save a bit to help keep the cycle established while the new filter media seeds). If you change your filter media once a month as directed by the manufacturer, you are removing a large percentage of your beneficial bacteria colonies and your remaining colonies have to race to catch up as they are overwhelmed by the fact that they're having to do twice as much work, throwing your tank into what is called a mini cycle. Mini cycles kill fish (again, experience speaking here).
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