If you read that article in my signature it will explain the nitrogen cycle. Only rinse the filter pads in the treated water which can be pwc water you are taking out anyway or dechlorinated /treated water for. Make sure if your community water has chloramines that your water treatment is a treatment for that. Sometimes it will, but you need more drops, usually 2x the average amount, instructions should say. We recommend Prime water treatment becasue it can really help a new keeper with neutralizing spikes of toxic stuff in the water.
Never throw out the filter pads and change them, ...yes, I said never only when they fall apart. That is where the majority of BB /beneficial bacteria will colonize/grow making it THE thing which will do the most work to keep your tank running snoothly, using the nitrogencyle to do it.
It takes ~5 weeks, maybe more to cycle a tank. Could be less.
Do the water changes and then note the range color on the strip, it should have some numbers in there to give a range and you could post the results.
I didn't believe this either, till I had almost a tank of fish die because of a bad test strip reading, that they can and often will be fine and then fail and not give a correct reading. So you will read all over here in threads they are not reliable.
Getting a good liquid test kit is really a necessity. There was the old school way of just starting up a tank with a few fish and trying to get a colony of BB going but then we would throw away the pads every month or 2 when they were dirty and wonder what was wrong with the fish.
There are several FW articles about doing "fish in" cycling which is what you have now with fish in the tank, if you get good at testing water and keep up on pwc, the fish should be fine, and fishless cycling also. The article In my link will have some suggested articles too. Like "Fish in cycling - Step over to the dark side,"
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/fishin-cycling-step-dark-side/
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/
Hopefully a few water changes and some tests and a new test kit and a bunch of reading and maybe re-reading and you will we equipt.