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As tcamos said, take a look at that link. Everyones cycles take their own time. Doing fish-less works differently than fish-in. As for the LFS guy, the bacteria you are growing are mainly in the filter media so doing water changes does not harm their growth. It will however make your cycle take longer because you are removing the very substance that they need to grow- ammonia. Unfortunately you need to keep the levels of ammonia and nitrIte low to keep the fish healthy. This can be a reason why the cycle will take a long time. Most if not all people here will insist on doing fish-less cycles for these reasons. Only clean you filter media in used tank water from your water change. Just syphon out some into a bucket and rinse the gunk off. As far as a bottle of something, I would find out what that bottle is and post it here before you add it. On the whole, be patient and do those water changes daily to keep the ammonia and nitrIte levels down. Good luck.
The information I found on here yesterday in regards to cycling a tank with fish states that the daily water changes do not reduce Beneficial Bacteria and in fact reduces ammonia to safer levels in the end resulting in a tank that is cycled slightly sooner. Never the less, he has no ammonia, at least when he did the test, so I feel the only way he is loosing any necessary ammonia is because the test is simply a snap shot per say at that point in time and not what is going on all day or week for instance. Perhaps I miss understood.
Doing water changes however, does not reduce the Beneficial Bacteria in your tank other than any that may be free wheeling in the tank. Beneficial Bacteria clings to things like the glass and substrate and is moved generally by force like vacuuming a tank. That being said I have become a little confused myself as far as adding stuff like Prime and Stability. I understand using Prime to dechlorinate and the like, but I do not understand why we would want to kill Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate when it is necessary to establish the tank in the first place. I can understand if the levels get ridiculous and the fish are in there, but if we are cycling to prepare for fish then why kill it?
Other than that, you have to realize a few things. Your LFS is there to sell you stuff. We are not, but we do not always agree. People come in with different experiences, trying different things. My water in Saskatchewan Canada is likely nothing like the water where you live. The issues could be as different as the water or no different at all. People also bring in a lot of emotion and passion to this hobby and at times it feels like dealing with religion or politics, but for the most part I find aquarists to just agree to disagree. Look on any forum such as a Can I stock these fish together and see how many yeses and nos you see, they will be close to equal. Water issue are no different.
I am not saying this to discourage you, but to let you know that at times you are going to have to take all the information given to you and then make a decision based not necessarily on fact or evidence but on what you are comfortable living with.
To me it sounds like your stocking levels are ok for a fully cycled tank. The test results you got make me uncomfortable but these things also happen. How long did the tank cycle before you added the first fish? Did you add the others the same day or over a course of days? Have you used any products at all? I would like to suggest Prime, but as I stated, I am a little confused about its use in cycling a tank since it is killing what the tank needs to cycle, but you have to be aware too that Nitrate is a killer to fish and ammonia, if it does not kill them can lead to other things that will kill them (such as ammonia burns that can get infected).
Again, I am not trying to scare you, I am trying to give you the information I would have liked when I started about 6 months ago. The best thing you can do for your fish is to learn the Nitrogen cycle inside and out. Learn how to keep your tank healthy and cycled and then learn about the needs of each of your fish as much as you can. Happy Fish keeping!