[tang daddy]

I would personally add corals first to a cycled tank over fish, some corals can take more abuse than fish.

When I say start with corals I am meaning zoas and mushrooms, these corals can withstand quite alot of torture.....

I would wait abit on lps, start with softies, then lps and finally sps if you even plan on getting any.

When I usually start off my tank, I always add cheaper soft corals as a tester, if you kill zoas and mushrooms then your tank definately has a problem.

Dont use damsels to cycle, you will have a hard time catching them out. As much as I hate damsels I would not use them for food or cycling. The cocktail shrimp is the best method for cycling to start the amonia cycle.

Inverts should never go in a tank first aswell, they are sensitive so if there is a cycle they may not do well, again just my thoughts.....

Here is they way I see it, you cured your rock and so this doesnt help you much with a cycle because most of your cured rock doesnt have tons of algae, sponges etc. If there is no algae then the animals feeding on the algae perish, there may be slight amounts of bacteria still lingering on the rock but with no waste its hard for them to colonize.....

I still stick with my original statement, which is add some cheaper softies to your tank, add some Lr rubble or a few more pieces of liverock to your sump. Wait for the diatoms which is usually the first sign of a cycle, then the hair algae stage and maybe a cyano stage then after this is all over your tank is cycled.

I speak from experience, all my tanks I have started go through these stages, Threads on reef central seem to go through the same situation. With soft corals they can handle the nitrate/nitrite spikes, and the pods will thrive on the algae outbreak in your tank whilst cycling.

Hope my input will help with your decision, at the algae stage the fish should be good to add, because the algae will use up most of the nitrates from the tank.