I did my sand last week. I had both the power head and pump running 30 min after. It took me like 3 days with my skimmer running after 24hrs of putting the sand.
Yes, I did live sand, 40lbs and I already had about 20lbs.i have a nice deep sand bed now. About 60lbs of LR. All on a 60cube. My cube has been cycling for exactly 20 days. All my parameter are good. But I will let it sit for another 3 more weeks before I place anything in it. My refugium which I created 2 weeks after has been helping too.