The cycle will go much faster if you can use rock sand and water from an already established tank. For my nano I used cycled rock but new sand and water. I didn't see a cycle at all but it took about 2 weeks to see any activity in the sand.
Just a suggestion for evaporation topup. I use a kent aquadoser and it works great. I just fill the reservoir about once every 7-9 days (depending on how much we use the woodstove
).