Hi Hatchet, I wouldn't worry about the small particles on top of the water. I just set up some tanks and I saw that too. In my tanks, it turned out to be very small air bubbles that settled down in a few days. I would keep an eye on it, but it should settle down and go away.
A fish has a natural slime coat that helps keep him healthy. When the slime coat is disrupted (due to fighting with other fish, stress, injury) the possibility for a bacterial or fungal infection is greater. The water conditioner that I use, Novaqua, removes chlorine and also enhances the slime coat. I think most of the dechlorinators have a slime coat enhancement.
I don't have any of the fish that you're thinking about, but I think 78 degrees is fine for tropical fish. (I have bettas, which prefer a temp of 80 or 82 degrees.)
I would not, in my opinion, try the Cycle product. I would order and wait for the Bio-Spira. I just placed an order from The Fish Store as mentioned in another post
www.fishstoretn.com and my Bio-Spira came in 3 days. I just added it today! I've used it before, and it's wonderful. I would not add Cycle now, and then add Bio-Spira later.
IMHO, I would just use the Bio-Spira and not the Cycle. The Bio-Spira is meant to be added to a full tank of fish. Add all your fish, then add the Bio-Spira. The Bio-Spira bacteria will start "eating" the ammonia and the nitrites. Then you remove the nitrates with water changes. Another good thing about using Bio-Spira is that you can add all your fish at once. This may prevent any aggression toward a newly-added fish a few weeks later, as the "old" fish have established their territories already.
Here is a thread about Cycle if you're interested:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=12629&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=cycle&start=0