Starting out with some Live Rock but mostly base rock?

When starting a new tank can you buy mostly base rock with some live rock. lets say for example I would get 2/3 base rock (because it is much cheaper) and 1/3 live rock. Over time, would the base rock become live rock?

What do you fellow 3reefers think?

 

a lot of people do this,
some people even go all base rock and then they get some coraline shavings from a fellow reefer.

yes overtime it will become live rock

 

+1 IMO it's better to use mostly base rock. This reduces the chances of getting unwanted hitchhikers on live rock. Even if you start with only base rock it will be live rock by the end of the cycle.

 

That's how most of us do it. My build started with 50#'s base and 35#'s of live. 6 months later it's all very much live rock. You could go all base and add just one piece of good live rock from you LFS and eventually everything will be colonized and considered live.

 

I went with 100% dry base rock, the piece of live rock from the LFS will speed things up a bit but in my opinion not enough to make me risk any of the nastier hitch hikers that many time tag along. But thats just my aversion to risk so take it with a grain of salt and make up your own mind on your risk/reward level