Cycling a new tank

[Intuos]

I setup a new tank on Friday 11th March and it has got me thinking about all the different ways of getting the cycle started. 

This time around I have tried something different (no.5) to my usual way of doing it (normally I use no.4), previously I have tried the following methods 

1) fish in cycle adding a few fish at a time and doing daily testing and water changes. 

2)fish in cycle adding in seeded media from an existing setup doing daily testing and water change if required 

3)ghost feeding 

4)adding ammonia 

5)dosing with ammonia and adding bb (fluval cycle) 

This has really surprised me with the results so far. Tank is 130 litres and dosed at 2ppm of ammonia each day. 

Water parameters each day 

Day 1 - ammonia 2ppm nitrate 0 nitrite 0

Day 2 - ammonia 3ppm nitrite .5ppm nitrate 5ppm

Day 3 - ammonia 2ppm nitrite 20ppm nitrate 

Day 4 - ammonia 1.5ppm nitrite 2ppm nitrate 50ppm

The speed of the jump in both nitrate and nitrate levels rising is way above what I was expecting. 

What methods have others tried and what we're the outcomes? 

[colo3000]

When I cycled my tank, I was dosing beneficial bacteria into a fishless tank for 2 days, and then began adding fish while still dosing beneficial bacteria and doing water changes. My tank was cycled in about 2 weeks and ammonia levels were always very low during the process before going to 0.

[AndreaW]

I typically do a fish-in cycle, with a light bio-load and let nature do it's thing. I do test and do water changes as needed. I also add Seachem Stability. Don't know if it really does what it says, but it can't hurt, right?

When I set up my 10G Betta tank in January, I used seeded material from my well-established 46G aquarium and had no problem establishing my cycle. I don't really even know when it was cycled because it's heavily planted and they absorb the nitrates so efficiently.