I would agree on the piece of shrimp, that way your not going to condem a fish to die in your tank during the cycling process. I would also suggest before you put your sand in to give it a good rinse (I am sure you know this) but yes you are on the right track. your amonia will peak first then the nitrite. What your doing in the cycle process (and sorry if you allready know this, but it may help the newer to the hobby on this forum) your literally growing bacteria. specifically Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter, and what they do is convert amonia which is toxic to fish to nitrite which is less toxic but still toxic and then the nitrobacter actually use this as an energy source and convert this to nitrate.