Is this normal when cycling?

[Lcc86]

Actually @TwoTankAmin ignore some of what I said above, I don't want to keep re-editing the same post. Just about to buy some Dr Tim's online - won't arrive until middle of next week but at least I can know how much ammonia I am adding now. Until then I will leave well alone!

 

[Ichthys]

There’s nothing actually wrong with using fish food as an ammonia source. It just takes longer. It promotes heterotrophic bacteria and (harmless) fungi that break down solids, but once you’re cycled and the ammonia is coming mostly from the fish, the numbers of heterotrophic bacteria will fall back.

 

[Mazain]

It’s a bacterial bloom, because you’re using flakes as the ammonia source. Fish food is broken down into ammonia by Heterotrophic bacteria, which is why the cycle takes longer. But it takes a lot… a million of them to do the work of 1 (one) single Nitrosomonas bacterium. So that’s what the bloom is. They double their numbers every day. Do a water change or just leave it. Now that you have ammonia the nitrosomonas will start to grow and out-compete the heterotrophics, and the bloom will die off.

Sometime people mistake it for a overdose of CO2. It's a job for the clean-up crew! Cawa bunga!