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I thought I've read that you should run a heating cycle at least after adding any water to get rid of any oxygen, is that wrong?

Yes I believe it doesn't help. Here is why:

• boilers rot out in the steam chamber. They do not seem to rot out below the water line. If oxygen staying in the water longer was a problem, we'd see the rotting happening below the water line.
• If boiling the water quickly after adding it did reduce the corrosive effects of oxygen, then we wouldn't see boilers rotting out from too much fresh water because in almost every case, the water is boiled soon after it is added (because it is added during a call for heat by an auto-feeder).

What I believe happens is that regardless of when the O2 is driven out of the water by heating, that freed oxygen goes into the steam chamber and attacks the metal above the water line, eventually rotting a hole in it.

If you really want to reduce the corrosive effects of makeup water, you can pre-heat the water before adding it to the boiler.

There is usually a "blocked vent switch" under the vent damper, it would have 2 wires going to it. That is usually a very small manual reset red button that pops out to open the safety circuit if for some reason the exhaust gases are not going up the chimney.

There is another safety called the "flame rollout switch", it looks to be connected by yellow wires to the lower left of the gas valve. These are usually one time thermal fused and non resettable. Ohm meter should show closed with wires removed or voltmeter show 0 volts if closed with power applied. Show 24 volts if open with power applied.