Exactly bro. When you said you weren't sure if you would call it Instacycle it made my brain hurt because I've been highly doubting shroom lagoon "cycled" at all. Def not your typical run down dragged out run of mill cycle.I have no idea lol. One would think going from a 29 biocube to a 180 and adding a ton of things all at once would be considered an insta cycle, but it was all done with KP rock and the old Fiji rock I have had wet forever. I did have big 3 consumption from day 1, but tested it often. Even added tons of fish right out of qt the same day it was full.
Now my brain is going to work non stop on what to call this lol.
Then you take my nieces tank I setup. Live rock from the macro grow out sump. Thrown into a 10 gallon with new water and a hob filter/small powerhead combo. It did fine since day 1. Fully stocked on day 1 as well. 2 clowns, rbta, gsp, pulsing Xenia and tons of zoas. All is still doing well. It was also 100% new water. Would that even be called an insta cycle, as the rock was already cycled and the macro grow out get doses pure ammonia hourly?
See now my brain hurts lol.
If it did it was literally a few minor ammonia bumps for only a cpl hours after feeding for first few days lol. Only makes sense fully cured rock is going to hit water running and be able to process ammonia and nutrients like mature tank so idk man.
Did you ever experience typical new tank cloudy water bacterial bloom in any of upgrades and tanks you mentioned?