typical cycle times are 3-8weeks with the norm falling in the 4-6range... Just test reguraly during this period you will notice your ammonia increase, it should fall and when it does you should begin detecting nitrites, as they rise and begin to fall you wwill start to read nitrates... Then water changes till your nitrates are gone... once ammonia and nitrites read 0 and nitrate read <5ppm(for corals) or <20ppm(for fish only). you may begin adding your inhabitants...
It is not a bad idea to feed a small portion of food throughout the duration of the cycle to allow for a robust colony of bacteria to take care of excess nutrients that will be present once you add fish....
Feeding or adding ammonia to the tank will cause a "jump start" on the cycle process, but is not required....
Your driftwood will not only change the PH of the water, but it will also cause ammonia, which will then break down into nitrates as steve advised... I would shy away from it.
It's a wait game, but if you wait it out and do it right the first time, you will be setting yourself up with a good foundation to build on later....
No need to do waterchanges until your nitrates are high enough to give you a reading on your test.
The waterchange amount will be directly proportional to the nitrate reduction... for example if your tank has 10ppm of nitrates and you change out 20% of your tank water your nitrate count will drop by 2 after the water change and will read close to 8ppm.. This should help you determine how much to change when it comes time to add live stock... but you don't need to go over 50% on your water change at a time under normal circumstances unless something dramatic happens that you need to flush the system.
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