How quickly can fishless cycling work?

[gsxrated98]

OK, so I have had my 20 gal tank with fish setup for over a month now, and I haven't seen any signs of nitrites.

I have a QT tank 10 gal, setup for a while now, and I decided to run in through the fishless cycling process.

I added ammonia (Ace HW brand) to the tank on Monday. I checked it again Monday night to see the levels of ammonia, and hit it again.
after testing that, my ammonia levels were between 4 and 8ppm.

I have the temp range right now at approximately 78deg, all the cheap heater will do I think.

I just finished testing the water of the QT tank, and I'm seeing 0 ammonia, between 2.0 and 5.0 ppm nitrites, and 5ppm nitrates.
Should the cycle process happen so quickly?

I did put in some live plants on a piece of driftwood that I got when I purchased a used 75gal, established tank.
Is it possible that some bacteria lived on the DW and plants, and survived the trip? It was kept in an unheated bucket for 2 or 3 days, filled with tank water from the established tank.

Is the tank properly cycling, or am I seeing false reading?

I put more ammonia it a few minutes ago, and I'll test that tomorrow morning.

[genocidex]

Sounds like the tanks are attempting to cycle. Not much bb will survive 3 days with no food but some could help. If u know a fellow fish keeper in ur area maybe u can get a small bit of bio media from them to speed the cycle up a bit... I just donated a used sponge to a fellow fish keeper in my area for this purpose...

[gsxrated98]

Well, it seems as though my 10Gal has fully cycled. Tested this morning, and 0ammonia, 0nitrites, and between 5 and 10ppm of nitrates. Not bad for only 1 week.

Now, what can I transfer from the cycled tank, to the non cycled tank? There running the same filter, so if I just swap the filter media, will that almost instantly cycle the other tank?