I just finished doing just what you are asking about. I had about 65 lbs of clean, dead rock and bought one nice piece of live rock. My live rock had nice shape, good coraline algea and no obvious pests.
I did the cycle in my display tank with heaters and a couple of powerheads. I kept the temp at 80, and fed the tank with fish food about once a week. I tested for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite once a week to make sure things were progressing. After about 6 weeks, all three parameters were down to 0.
About half way through, I hooked up my sump and started running my skimmer and some carbon and phosphate media. As a result, I got a really good cycle, with minimal algea growth. I've now added a CUC and my first three fish, and everyone is happy.
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