there is a big debate about whether to skim or not,and do water changes while cycling with lr, my opinion is not to do either, but it has worked both ways, if you do not, you wil not loose that much life that will not regrow, in fact, i did not notice any loss of life, ours had great life,and still does
anyhow, to answer the question, yes it is normal, this can take much longer, IMO water changes and skimming prolongs the cycle(my opinion), but cycles can take months, normally using cured lr it is more like weeks, but it can take months,
so don't panic, they will go down almost overnight when they do, the nitrites should rise and fall just behind them(so i would start monitoring nitrItes now, and see if they are rising), then the nitrates
anyhow, if you have no fish or inverts then i would not do them, and scrubbng the lr, you have already removed most of the life you wnat to save(which was probably dead anyhow like sponges and algaes), but removeing alll the die off will definitely not slow down the cycle, in fact it probably helped it
main key is patience at this point, it willl happen with or without help, whateve you do, ride ti out, do not try any chemicls to lower tehm, they are not worth it and have in many instances thrown things off more than helped(although a few people have had SOME luck with them, most would not use them again)
HTH
