Geezer From The Freezer wrote:

ok for my first tank I did a terrible job of cycling it
(only a week of so before fish).

Um, did you put anything in for it to cycle from? Just putting water in
a tank doesn't do the trick.

The bio-buggies need something to eat (ammonia) from some source. If it
isn't fish, you need to provide an artificial source.

Most fishless cycling methods use liquid ammonia, a couple suggest a
chemical powder form, one or two people advocate using... [ah-hem], the
supply that nature gives you everyday...

Ingrid advocates using fish food which decays into ammonia. (Which seems
to be the method that you're trying.)

Now I am cycling the big tank and was wondering how long it
would be before I see ammonia spiking. It's been about a week
and nothing at all yet. I have put some food pellets in and
some cycling solution but nothing, no ammonia or nitrites yet.
(not tested Nitrates as thought they wouldn't be showing yet).

Any ideas?

How big is the tank vs how much food did you put in there?
Might try the specific brand of food Ingrid has had results with...
Might do a google search on "fishless cycling" and use some ammonia from
the store. (The method I use.)

http://www.mindspring.com/~reed/fishless.html

Good luck,

-Donald
--
"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving
that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the
proof." -Galbraith's Law