as essjay says, putting in fish will create a LOT of work for you if you want to keep them alive...right now patience is your best friend! I was lucky with my cycle; no wife to push for fish, and my kids old enough to just look, yawn, and move on!
No experience with any of these 'wonder additives' so can't comment, all I know is that with ammonia in the tank at 3-4ppm, temp 30C, pH at 7.8-8, plenty of aeration and dirty water added on day 12, the ammonia dropped after 14 days.
I think that by adding stuff (other than mature media) you can alter or even stall the process so its best to just leave it to work by itself...just my opinion! Its probably worth giving these aqua balls a week then if thats the LFS advice; keep a check on pH and use bicarb to keep it up around 7.8-8 if you have to, don't add anything else and wait for the ammonia to zero! Put up on the forum where you are and someone nearby may be able to give you mature media, that really is the way to kick-start your cycle OK? As I mentioned all I added was dirty water to the inlet pipe of the filter, it doesn't have to be a bit of filter etc...my LFS couldn't give me filter sponge or ceramic tubes or anything because they didn't use it. I asked for any old c##p and he just syphoned up about 2 litres of sub-gravel gunk out of an old tank; it seemed to do the trick! There must be someone local to you who can hand you some c##p!
Don't give up!!!! Believe me, it IS worth the wait, as the presence of hundreds of people here confirms!
