For the benefit of anyone else looking for advice on here and potentially using products to speed up the cycle, do you think it was the Dr Tim's that finally "did the trick", the combination/cumulative effect of some/all of the products (mature media, Tetra Safe Start, Interpet plus the Dr Tim's) and other factors (re-arranging the positioning of the filter media, the bicarbonate of soda), and/or did you use another product after that or get hold of someone else's media?
What ultimately happened to the white, stringy stuff - did it disappear of its own accord or did you do something in particular to get rid of it such as pouring boiling water on it?
So after not having much luck with tetra safe start or Dr tims, i did try one last product which seemed to work for me, wether that was a coincidence with other things im not sure...
I purchased some seachem stability and thats when i started seeing some readings on nitrites and nitrates
I also added probably double the ceramic media i already had to my filter, along with 3 sponges so prehaps that helped too.
I did try putting my suckers in boiling water, but it just grew back, i tried this twice.. so i dont think that is a fix!
I believe the white stuff is probably a product of having the excess ammonia in the tank during fishless cycling, and something to do with that damn plastic lol
Since being virtually cycled and having fish (i still question wether my ammonia reading is 0 or 0.25 sometimes seems to have a tiny tinge of green) , i am not seeing nearly as much of it on my plastic stuff anymore, and for some reason ive seen my cories snuffling around my airline tubing, maybe they like to munch the tiny bit that is there i dont know??