You know what.. I too cycled with fish, 3 cherry barbs to be precise in a 12g. I also had the bacterial bloom. I kept testing my water for over a month with my test kit and continuously saw no reduction in my ammonia (which stayed around .5ppm ~.25ppm) with no signs of nitrite or nitrate. I was like, what the heck, why is my cycle stalling??? So I went to a private LFS and spoke to the shop keeper (who seemed very knowledgeable and helpful) and he recommended that I put in a bottle of Tetra Safe Start. To tell you the truth, I was a bit reluctant about the bacteria in a bottle thing. From what some people were saying in forums, there has been some mixed results and debates over it. Anyway, I saw that he kept the Tetra Safe Start in a fridge next to the original Bio-Spira stuff (the one for SW that everyone seems to love). I also noticed that on the Tetra Safe Start that it stated it contained "patented Bio-Spira bacteria." So I said, what the heck, I'll give it a shot! I added the bottle to my tank, waited a week, and sure enough... 0 ammonia, nitrite 0ppm, and nitrate 5.0ppm! Now that my tank is established, I have crystal clear water (of course after a good old PWC). IMO, Tetra Safe Start works! Don't trust the other stuff such as API Stress Zyme (not sure about Nutrafin Cycle).
One thing important to note, if I were do to this all over again, I would do the fishless cycling method because it's simply faster (from what I read). Thankfully all of my fish are alive and doing well post-cycle.