Hi to all, new to group but not to aquariums.

I have had at least one aquarium most my life. My first when I was
young (1970's), had a back filter that you used flex tubing to suck
the air out of the uplift tube. During the 80's I owned 9 tanks - 10g
to 55g.
I took a few years off after my husband accidently killed my beloved
fancy goldfish by putting them from the styrofoam box that I used to
bring them with on a 1000 mile relocation move into a 50 gallon tub
(bought at a farm store that was suppose to be used for watering live
stock) that had not sat long enough for the chlorine to disipate. We
had lived out in the sticks and had the best well water for 15 years
and never had to worry about chemicals. My husband didn't understand
why I told him to wait and just dumped my babies (had for 6 years)
into the tub, they all went belly up instantly. I was crushed.

Anyway to the now: I just started up a 29g, been running for 3 months.
It went through the cycle and was doing fantastic. While I was at work
my hubby once again thought he would help me out :-0
My back filter was clogged and he ran it under tap water and stuck it
back in like he saw me do dozens of times when we had well water. He
wiped out all the bacteria and my water is a mess the ammonia was off
the scale last Monday and nitrite was good. I have never been in this
spot before. I spent hours googling and became confused with all the
stuff I found in the archives, I did a 5 gal. water change for 4 days
and skipped yesterday. My ammonia is now at 3.0 and the nitrite is up
to .3 mg/l. My tank is stocked with:
5 rummy nose
5 various danios
4 cherry barbs
1 cat (can't remember name)

My husband went out and bought me another 29 gal aquarium today so in
a few days I will be able to move a few of the fish out. None of local
fish stores would take any of them. So I am running on a prayer right
now.
Questions a Should I continue the water changes on a daily basis or
how often? Is a 5 gal. partial daily to much? not enough? I have taken
some gravel from a well established 10 gal. and have it sitting in a
nylon in the tank. Is there any other ideas anyone can give me that
might help speed up the cycle on this tank?

Any suggestions would be greatly appriciated :-)

San