yeah....... the lady is wrong, its all in the rock and not the water. You could use 100% water from an established tank with uncrured live rock and it would take you a month or two to finish your cycle.
Its all about the live rock, if the live rock if fully cured (been sitting in an established tank for a a few months) then you might see a cycle in three days, if any. (depends on the rock, always test test test)
But it doesn't matter where the water comes from, its all about the rock
(if water from an established tank does help, it is very little)
I recently cycled a new frag tank, with 50lbs of fully cured live rock (from an established reef tank) and 100% new salt water, and I didn't have much of a cycle (because the live rock was already colonized with good bacteria) but I still waited a few weeks before adding anything to the tank. (probably could have added stuff within the first week, but waited just to be sure)
Its funny how many fish stores you can go to that will give you bunk information, it makes you wonder how they even keep the creatures in their tanks alive.
(this is just a reminder to ALWAYS get a second, third or even forth opinion (which you did, congrats!) when it involves anything (especially saltwater tanks) )
