I haven't read through the thread yet, but you absolutely do not have to dose to 4 PPM. That's an arbitrary value that gets repeated over and over on forums. There is no reason to do that other than wanting to throw an entire stock list in a tank all at once (which I personally wouldn't recommend).
If you're converting 1 PPM of ammonia, just keep adding the fish food until your nitrite level goes down to 0. Your nitrate reading will be really high by that point, so do a big water change, 75-90%, and add a small fish load. Monitor with your test kit daily for a while, but your tank should easily be able to handle a few small fish. Wait a week or so, then add another small fish load. Repeat until the tank is fully stocked.