Yeah, but the point is, you'll still have ammonia to start the cycle with water changes. Doing water changes doesn't mean that it won't be produced. Stuff that is dying on the rock will continue to die, and there's no amount of water changes in the world that can fix that. The idea is to get your tank to a "steady state" where waste products being produced in the tank are immediately broken down by bacteria. If you have a huge ammonia spike, sure, you get lots of bacteria to break them down. But what happens once the cycle is over and those bacteria no longer have food (since ammonia production is now low)? They die off to a population much lower, one that is consistent with the amount of food. It's the standard "S-curve" with respect to predators and prey that they teach in first year biology. If there's no food, there won't be anything to eat that food. And you're in exactly the same place you would have been had you done water changes during the cycle. Every time you add anything to your tank, you're going to cause a cycle anyway. Your first one doesn't need to be harsh.
Craig Bingman recommends dumping in a whole bottle of phytoplankton, actually. The phyto eats ammonia, and you get this huge surge in phyto population, which in turn feeds all of the critters that came on the rock, increasing their own populations. The bacteria for cycling the tank will take care of itself once you start adding things like simple invertibrates and a few hardy corals well after your water "tests fine". I say "tests fine" because water often "tests fine" when there is still a ton of stuff in it that can kill corals and fish and other invertibrates. I strongly recommend that everyone wondering what the difference is between a "mature" tank and a "cycled" tank read the following link:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...31#post1978331