On the topic of test kits, there are some that are only used when you are cycling your tank (e.g. ammonia and nitrite) and others that are used forever. I found the tropic Marin combination test kit to be useful for cycling, as it has ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, and pH. For $50 it's a pretty good price. You will quickly get annoyed by comparing colors in testing vials to the colors on the paper cards included with the test kit. At that point, invest in some Hanna checkers. The low range phosphate, alkalinity and high range nitrate checkers have a digital readout and are very easy to use. I only discovered them last year, but I love them. For calcium testing I use the red sea kit.
On the topic of rock, you will have varying schools of thought. I personally like having live rock because I find that there are different headaches that I find more tolerable. I buy rock that is established from my LFS. I carefully hand pick every rock to avoid rocks with obvious pests, then I treat the rocks with flatworm exit before putting in even a single hermit crab, to nuke any potential flatworms. I observe the rock closely and kill any aiptasia and vermetid snails as soon as I see them.