About one week into this new 40 gallon breeder with a Father Fish style dirted deep substrate. For better or (probably) worse I didn’t boil the wood and am dosing ammonia instead of cycling fish in. Definitely experiencing a bacterial bloom but intend to wait it out. I did have roughly one day of ammonia overdose which is almost certainly contributing to some issues with the plants but got that in check so 🤞 hopefully all of the plants pull through! I did add some water and material from an older 10 gallon tank. In hindsight, I probably should have passed on the ammonia and thrown in a guppy.
I’ve done a few tanks with pure ammonia and prefer setting them up that way.
The bacteria bloom is a good sign that you’re headed in the right direction.