Week 2, fishless cycling questions - still a newb

[buminbeer2]

Ok, all of you have been great and need more help, here goes:
Starting Day 8. Stats:
Ammonia - Finally read 0 on 4/18, dosed a teaspoon and reading 2ppm today.
NritrIte - off scale, over 5ppm
NitrAte - off scale, over 160ppm
29 gallon tank.

I understand that each day, if ammonia gets to 0, I dose it back up, correct? I keep doing that until NritItes get to 0? Then I do a big water change, test daily for NitrAtes to be under 20ppm, have a few beers, sober up and ready for fish, I hope?

Ok, so I need to know on the above if I'm heading in the right direction, next question.
This is going to be a plant aquarium and I'm about $600 into the setup, very serious on having the best equipment and probably buying too much stuff I don't need, but here is what happened today.
Finally got another order of brine shrimp, nets, you name it and a sack of Chemi-pure. I have a Marine land 200 HOB. Mistake, number one, was not turning the filter off to add the bag behind the filter cartridge and washing the Chemi-pure bag, now my tank looks, well dark/greenish, cloudy, and I'm a little upset as it was pretty clear.
Should I not have added the Chemi-pure? Also, the back of the filter cartridge was gunked up with all kinds of stiff, now floating in the tank. So I drained about 10 gallons and swished the cartridge and Chemi-pure bag in the water in the bucket and added new water. I have heard you should never change the filter (even though mine has a bio-wheel as well). Is that true?
Just need pointers from here what I have done, should not have done, and is my tank moving in the right direction. Sorry for all the questions.
Signed, Scott. thanks...

 

[Bl414]

Heya, first of all when the ammonia hits zero, add a little ammonia just to keep the bacteria fed. Your nitrites are really high so you might wanna do a pwc just to get them down to readable levels.
Next, if your new to plants then I really suggest going to YouTube and type in dustinsfishtanks and literally watch every video he has, they're entertaining as well as informative.
Yeah, never change your cartridge unless it's basically falling apart, the thing you can do if you want to clean it is just take it out and move it around in your waste tank water when you do your pwc's.