if you added uncured live rock, then the shrimp is probably unnessesary, it will cycle all on it's own, if the rock is cured then shrimp is great method.
once the tank is ready,
the real trick is to add the fish slowly, like one every 7 days, this way the bacteria colony has time to adapt/grow to the new inhabitants.
from the day you added live rock (if uncured) it would take about 35 days to colonize every surface in the aquarium and have your nitrates go down.