Water changes during Cycle

[Toast]

Im new to fish keeping, and have been doing a fishless cycle in my first tank, a 40 breeder, De-chlorinating new water and adding fishfood, I did not use any safe start or bottled bacteria. It has been 4-5 weeks since I started. Is there a point where I need to do a water change during the cycle to reduce the amount of ammonia in the tank? I have done some research and the common answer is no, but then there are others saying that if you have too much ammonia it will kill the bacteria. Wich a water change will solve.

My specs are
40 b, gravel, hob, heater, airstones
ph - 7.6
Amonia - Between 4-8ppm
Nitrites - 1ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm

Thank you for any information

 

[Aiken Drum]

Generally, no you dont need to do water changes during fishless cycle. But, your ammonia is high so i would do so. Ammonia levels above 6ppm can stall the cycle.

Initial dose of ammonia should be 4ppm. Test daily and if ammonia drops to 1ppm or below redose upto 2ppm. Your nitritres are likely to go off the chart so you may want to do water changes at this point to keep nitrites to readable levels.

Without any bottled bacteria or established media a fishless cycle could take months.