Mr Ray.
Comes down to a matter of cost, by placing some good aragonite sand in your aquarium at low cost such as Southdown, Yardright or Old Castle play sand you can save yourself a good deal of money that you can place instead into Live rock that will not only seed your aquarium with bacteria but pods and worms as well.
As I stated before using live sand is a faster way to cycle your tank, add to this live rock and your well on your way, normally to a short cycle.
I used dead sand and dry base rock to start my 90, I added about 50 pounds of live rock from my 55 gallon when I tore it down. Started the cycle with a dead prawn and it was a long hard cycle but well worth the money saved and spent on other things.
Thomas
P.S. Mr Ray- I have a brother and other relitives that are or were part of the MDOC here in Michigan, am in the pool myself. Thankless job I understand.