New Tank

[Fishhead]

I just recently found this board and it has some great stuff here. I have just set up a new tank (about a month old now) and have a few questions that maybe some of you can help me with, sorry if this takes a while but I may have a lot to ask. Ok, so I have a 38 gallon tank, emperor 400 filter on it. Lots of rocks and some driftwood, lots of hiding places. Hardness is low and pH is between 7 and 8. Ive done the community tank in the past, I wanted to try some cichlids. I initially put 3 tiger barbs in the tank to cycle it, unfortunately I didnt let it go long enough before I added fish and two died. I now have a catfish, 2 sharks and the three barbs in the tank. But anway my ammonia level is very low, around 0 but my nitrites are very high right now. So Im currently waiting for them to drop before I add more fish. Ive been adding stress zyme to help this along. Ok so now for my questions.
1. Any other way to drop my nitrites quicker?
2. Nitrites could be too high because of too much food, but if I dont feed enough, my bottom feeders dont get any. Ive got 4 fish with big bellies and 2 slim bottom feeders. Any better way to get food down to them without feeding a ton?
3. Now what type of cichlids. Should I go with a single species, or maybe two different pairs. I like kribs and convicts but Ive heard they will kill everything in the tank. Firemouths are ok but tough to tell if they are male or female when they are young and I dont want to end up with a group of a single sex. Africans are great but most get too big for my tank. Also in my area we dont have many cichlids, most stores just have "assorted african cichlids".
So I know Ive asked a lot here but if anyone can give me a hand it would be a huge help, thanks in advance.

[Poet8102]

1. If you drop your nitrites too fast you will slow down the cycling. I would reccomend that you just continue to do partial water changes of about 10-15%, so as you do not interrupt the cycle. You are close to the end of the cycle as you probably know from you community tank days.
2. Try sinkin pellets of some kind. You may even be able to use algae wafers. I find that my pictus cats love "shrimp pellets", the pellets just fall down to the bottom of the tank before anything else can get to it.
3. The type of cichlid that you pick really has to do with your preference. You say that your ph is around 7.0 and your hardness is low, then I would stay away from the africans, especially since you wouldn't be able to get what you want anyway. If you want breeding cichlids then go for the cons, firemouths or keyholes. If you are worried about having a tank of all one sex then buy about six of the fish and wait until you get a pair. That shouldn't take that long. And then take the rest back or trade them in for something else. You might be able to get away with two pairs of fish with the right decorations and territory set ups.
I hope that I have helped.
good luck and welcome to the best cichlid forum on the web.