Glad Dalto chimed in. I've heard and read a lot of different things.
You're cycling quickly enough I suspect your bacteria did survive. It's hard to just wait, without *doing* a lot to it to make it go faster. But the one thing we know for sure that makes a tank cycle is time.
I cycled with help and seeded media from a member here, who was local to me and knew our soft water. She was also in the health sciences and experimented with cycling a lot. Even following what her research and experiments suggested was fastest, it took 10 days I think. I was dosing to 4ppm till she told me to do less, and I don't think I did a single water change. At the time I hadn't heard that high nitrites or nitrates could stall a cycle.
You're continuing to check pH too? It can crash during the cycle.
Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.