Its on the go Eli. Except for the early tiny bit of skimmate dump, exactly as you have suggested. I have to go find an ammonia test kit however. Never owned one of those for 30yrs.
I know what you mean as I went and started buying those test kits almost a year ago as I started testing on the rocks...lol
you could siphon some of your sand tank water and place it in the tank with your rocks...for more and different bacteria growth,...