Is it possible to cycle tank in 2-3 weeks?

I set my new 56 up less than 3 weeks ago & had to take it down for 4 days cause of a leak & i replaced it with a new tank. I put another 50 lbs of rock in from an established tank 3 days ago. I thought that would extend my cycle. Cause I had ammonia, nitrites & nitrates before adding the new rock. But I tested today & now I only got about 10 ppm on nitrates. Everything else has cleared up already. Well except my phosphates, I have about .75 of them. I haven't done any water changes yet cause I wanted to let the tank stabilize first. But I got my sand from an established tank, so the phosphates likely came from that cause I did use my ro/di filter for all my water. Can I expect a spike in my param with this rock being in for 3 days or would that of shown already? It's been years since I've had to cycle a tank & I've done this one a lil diff than before. Thanks

 

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Short answer... yes.

Long answer.... Since you used established sand, and some established rock the cycle may not be as bad as if it was all new/dead, so yes it is possible that your tank could cycle in a short period of time.

 

Mine cycled in a week using a bacteria additive.

 

Exactly. Rock and sand from an established system is already "cycled" (IOW, populated with mature bacterial colonies which can multiply and spread quite rapidly). Had you added all of it at the beginning, it's entirely possible that you would not have seen a detectable ammonia or nitrite spike at all.

 

Ok thanks. I will probably give it another week or so but Im thinking about my first fish & one type we used to keep was the red eye pajama cardinal. They seemed to be friendly & hardy to have. I would like to have maybe 2-3 total. Not sure if it would be ok to add that many right away or just add one & get a few more later.

 

They are very peaceful fish. I added two at the same time and know people who have added more together without issue. As long as your params are still ok i think you should be fine. It may be a good idea to think out your stocking list before hand just so you are sure you wont have too many conflicts. Good luck!

 

I'm not gonna have very much more fish. I'm more into the corals, but my plan is some bottom feeders like sand sifters. Once my tank gets more established I'm looking to get a dragonette or jaw fish. Probably a few night crawlers like long legged maroon colored starfish. And if course snails, crabs & some shrimp. Gotta have an algae eater too. I've had blennies before but they were a lil too aggressive. I'm not sure what's a good algae eater & can fit my 56g without being aggressive. I've got a good idea of what I'm looking for, just haven't actually nailed it down yet.