I bought a 10 gallon Top Fin hexagonal aquarium starter kit about a month
ago. At the same time, I bought 10 pounds of gravel, a couple of plastic
plants and a castle-looking thing to place on the bottom of the aquarium.

When I got home, I set up the filter, lid, etc. as instructed in the starter
kit video. I also placed the gravel, plants and castle in the aquarium.
Then, I filled the aquarium with dechlorinated water and let the system run
for a week.

At the end of the first week, I bought two 1-inch goldfish, introduced them
into the tank and started monitoring the ammonia level of the water.
Not so surprisingly, the ammonia concentration shot up to the saturation
limit of my test kit (i.e., 8 ppm). Therefore, I used a single dose of
AmmoLock and started doing frequent water changes (between 25% and 50% every
day or two). Thankfully, both fish are still alive.

Over the last 2-3 weeks, I've kept on doing water changes with dechlorinated
tap water that itself tests as having an ammonia concentration of
approximately 1 ppm. Unfortunately, no matter how often I change the water,
the ammonia level of the aquarium does not seem to dip below 4 ppm. Also,
I'm not detecting any nitrites. Therefore, I've concluded that the
nitrifying bacteria discussed in the faq.thekrib.com web site still have not
taken hold.

Is this an accurate conclusion, or am I missing something?
Also, if my conclusion is correct, is a month too long to wait for the start
of the nitrogen cycle?
Lastly, if a month is too long, please suggest what I can do to get things
started.

Thanks,

Hermes