cycles usually take quite a bit of time, at least 8-12 weeks in most cases. first ammonia will spike, followed by nitrite, then nitrate. ammonia and nitrite are toxic. once your ammonia and nitrite are down to 0 and your nitrate jumps way up there, your cycle is almost done. the only thing really left to do is a water change to remove all the excess nitrate. at this point, if the cycle is 100% complete, all of you ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings should be 0. if you still get a reading of any of these, you need to wait a little while longer. test again, following with more water changes and more testing. once everything is stable, and remain at readings of 0, then you should be done.
once the cycle is done, don't rush in with a ton of fish/corals/inverts. i'd get a cleanup crew, which will be mostly a variety of snails and hermit crabs. let that go for a little while, then begin to add a couple of fish. again, don't rush it, just a few fish (depending on tank size). i'd recommend a well known hardy fish like the chromis or damsel. but remember, as damsels get older/bigger they can get very aggressive. chromis can also get aggressive (they are in the same family as damsels - Pomacentridae) but tend to be more community friendly. small gobies and clownfish (also from the Pomacentridae family) also tend to be fairly hardy.
