[sir_dudeguy]

well whats your amonia been doing? Nitrates really dont have much to do w/the cycle other than the fact that they're usually the "end product" so to speak. You want to watch your amonia and nitrites for the cycle. Amonia would spike first, then as the bacteria that breaks it down begins to multiply, it starts going down and is broken into nitrites. Then the same thing happens for nitrites, and they're broken into nitrates. Nitrates can also be broken down once more, but i wont go into that.

But any time you add live rock, you could be creating a "mini-cycle" or spike, so i would advise getting all your rock at the beginning. I'm not saying you cant add more rock later....but you better make real sure that its already cured(cycled) so as not to cause a spike. Even if your fish store sells the stuff as "cured" it probably isnt as cured as you would hope.