ehh, true... when we cycle, we threw in 5 prawns, quite big somemore... and yet hardly smell anything... I don't know does the active live sand with bacteria and NSW help or not... maybe people cycle without using NSW and live sand/live rock so will take longer and stink up the place...
I think it took us only abt 5 days to complete the cycle and we waited until abt 1 full week then we slowly add in livestocks/corals.