base rock during first cycle

i started up a 55gal about 2 weeks ago with a shallow sand bed and 30lbs of live rock. I'm headed to the lfs again this weekend, but the nearest one i will buy from is over an hour away so i like to purchase a few things when i go. I would like to build of my rock and i know adding more live rock is a bad idea especially at this point so i was wondering if i would be able to purchase about 10-15 lbs of base rock without screwing up my first cycle.

 

purchase all the base rock you want with out fear. even adding some live rock wouldnt be too bad since your only two weeks in, just try and make sure its realitively clean.

 

You can add all the base rock you want. Might want to rinse it first to make sure there is no dust on it. Other than that base rock wont affect the cycle.

 

Absolutely! I started out with about 25 pounds of live and 20 of base. I now have probably 65-70 pounds of rock - I added 10 pounds here and 10 pounds there - all of base. It's much cheaper for one thing, and it won't mess up your cycle. As sostoudt and stepho said, be sure to at least rinse it! My LFS guy sometimes forgets to tell people to rinse it, and they come back really ticked off. The base we get has tons of dust on it, which will quickly turn to a muddy mess if you just put it in the tank! We take it out back and put a sprayer on the hose and blast it.