Fishless cycling using Dr Tim's One & Only live bacterial product

Thanks Thor!
I did a 25% water change Wednesday morning (I hadn't gotten your reply back yet on the 50% water change) but when I got home from work that evening the nitrites were very high, at least .5 ppm (at the top of my color chart). I made the decision to do a 100% water change and get rid of the substrate that has been causing my pH drift. I followed your instructions on acclimating a fish to a new tank and moved him to a clean gallon tank with no substrate (just 1 silk plant) over a 3 1/2 hour period (I floated him first to acclimate him to temp of new tank for 30 minutes). I put him in a small container that held 2 cups of his old tank water and switched out the old water with the new tank water, every 20 minutes by 1/8 th of a cup. He came through it great and he looks great, is active and eating normally. Since the new tank's water minus the substrate now is matched in pH and hardness to my RO water plus Equilibrium, it's faster and safer to do water changes, as long as I match water temperature. Long term exposure to even low level of nitrite had me concerned as I didn't know how long it would take me to get him into my 5 gallon tank that is not yet cycled.
I will follow your advice and add more ammonia to my new tank that is going thru the fishless cycle. I did check the ammonia level last night 25 minutes after adding the recommended amount to bring it up to 2 ppm and it read zero. Customer service at Dr. Tim's said it's because their bacterial product is so efficient, but I have concerns as there is still no nitrite. I'll try your method and see what happens.

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On the last post, I meant 5 ppm of nitrite, not 0.5 ppm, which is why I decided to replace all the water in his tank. I'm dealing with fish and tank emergencies and mild case of food poisoning all in same week.

Update on cycling tank. I increased ammonia to 7 drops on Wednesday night (tested zero on ammonia 25 minutes later). I just retested the cycling tank this morning and finally getting reading of 0.25 ppm on nitrite. Yeah!
I will add more ammonia this morning (I'll do the 7 drops again). It looks like I'm finally cycling (the correct tank this time!) LOL!

I will follow your feeding guidelines for my betta. Without the substrate in his holding tank it's easier to symphony out unbeaten food and waste. I noticed a slight pH drift down over 24 hours of 0.2 ppm, so I am doing daily water changes to keep the holding tank stable and ammonia at zero.

One observation before I noticed rising nitrite level in my betta's tank, he started with a new behavior, full face flaring. I read it was normal, but the new behavior sent up a red flag. The behavior has stopped now that nitrite is now at zero.[/u]