base rock to live rock

[ugluk]

I bought 50 lbs of base rock and 10 lbs of live rock to seed it with. I know the base will become live because of the bacteria after around 3 months but my snails and crabs only eat off of the live rock and not the base. How long before my base rock becomes a source of food like the live rock is? Is it just the algae growth on the rock because except for some brown diatoms on the sand and a small part of my base rock I do not have much. I would like to know because I plan on buying a flame angel in about 4 months and want to have enough algae growth to help feed him but I have barely enough to support a very small clean up crew.

 

[Blown 346]

Its just a matter of time say a few months for the base rock to become fully live. I would wait for the flame angel and have it be the last fish in the tank. They get aggressive and wont take lightly to newly added fish.