Um, I'm not sure how to answer you but when I have a new tank set up, I generally wait for the tank water to clear adequately first before adding in shrimp and otocinclus, and once my aquascape has more or less started to kick off in growth, I add the main fish.
Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate testing has never been done, since you can easily observe the health of a tank and in fact it's all about patience.
If you want to check how good your water has become, I'd say check for clarity, presence of ammonia/nitrite, pH, kH and gH levels.
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