High Nitrites In Cycle

That's fine for a cycle using mature media (your ceramic and foam from the pond filter).
Your ammonia eaters seem to be there in large numbers hence the drop form 3 ppm to zero in 4 days. However you don't appear to have many nitrite eaters - I wonder if that's due to the temp as a pond would be running cooler than a tank, though I don't know how temp could affect them.

1 ppm ammonia is converted into 2.7 ppm nitrite, so the first 3ppm that you added is now around 8ppm nitrite which is off the top of the tester scale. And the second 3 pm ammonia means you now have around 16 ppm nitrite in there. This is at danger level as the nitrite eaters stop multiplying around 15 ppm nitrite.

Have you tested your tap water nitrate yourself? Nitrate testers are the least accurate of the ones we use so it is better to use them to compare levels. Try testing nitrate on your tap water and tank water at the same time so you can compare the colours side by side. If the tank colour is higher than the tap colour, you do have some nitrite eaters.
And if you are using liquid testers, are you shaking one of the bottles even more than the instructions say to?


Once you've done these nitrate tests you'll know for sure if your nitrate is going up and if it is you do have some nitrite eaters, you just need to grow more.
You have just completed stage 6 in the method stickied in this section. Because you are potentially at the upper safe limit for nitrite, don't add any more ammonia yet. Go from stage 7. Since your ammonia is dropping very quickly, you'll test in 2 days and get zero ammonia, then test again in 4 days to get the second zero ammonia. That's when to add the 1 ppm dose. Then repeat this until your nitrite falls below 1.0 ppm
Please don't be tempted to add more ammonia more often than this or your nitrite will get high enough to stall the cycle.


It shouldn't take very much longer 

Hi Manjr and welcome to the forum. 

Good luck with your tank cycling. 

It shouldn't take you too long, it took me 23 days start to finish to cycle a sponge filter seeded with mature media, I imagine you'll be about the same. The nitrite eaters are the slow moes of the bacteria world I'm afraid

Have taken your advice Sue and done a comparison of the nitrates in the waters, the tank water contains, guesstimate, a couple of ppm more than the tap water about 5.00 against 7.00. Looks like I'll have to keep on waiting.
Edit: Surprised at the tap water, not seen that much nitrate before.!

Mine comes out the tap at 40ppm 

Same here. 

My tap water is 40ppm nitrates too.

 

Same plants....I grow on cuttings from the main tank in there normally, a lot of the stemmed plants go bald at the base so every now and then I replace them. Although that said there is a spare potted amazon sword in there. Maybe that's sucking up the nitrates

Welcome, Manjr

Hopefully it won't take too long for the cycle to finish.

What fish do you have in your pond, what fish have you had in the past over your years of fishkeeping, and what fish are you planning in your aquarium this time round?

Very good - I'm a goldie fan although mine were kept in a tank; I'm learning a little about pond fishkeeping as my parents' neighbour has a pond and I hear updates on it from them. Good luck with the new tank once it's cycled - great choice of fish you have planned for it.

On further reading and using the creator I've decided to forget the Agassiz's and  replace the tetras with cherry barbs and up the Otto's and pandas to eight of each. I'll put the barbs in first as they seem a good choice for that honour. I've kept the cherry's and kribs before and the kribs usually bred though no fry ever matured and the barbs always seemed very hardy and busy. The problem is that all the fish always look great in the bare tanks of the LFS. I've also got a diy cave in the tank waiting for them.
I almost forgot Fiona, I have had frogs in the pond for the last few years and they always breed, there's a load of spawn in there now.