Live Rock Conundrum

[Meadowlark]

I just received my 50 lbs of live rock today. I scraped, cleaned it and then put it in buckets of salt water for now. (I don't have a heater or power head in the buckets). It's now clear to me that I have only about half of the live rock that I need given what I wanted to do with it. Which was put it on a pvc rack that I built. Here are my many questions:

Is it ok for me to buy base rock for the other 50%?
If so, then where is the best deal on base rock?

Is ok that I leave the live rock in my buckets of salt water?
Should I just put it in my tank now to start the cycle?
Should I just fully cure it outside of my tank (or partially cure it) until the base rock gets here?

 

[zma21]

Yes, it is ok to use base rock for the rest of your rock. I believe marcos rock has great stuff.

 

[drummereef]

Yes, it's fine to bolster your live rock with base rock. It will become live in time as it will be seeded with the live rock. www.marcorocks.com has the best imo. It's fine to leave the rock in buckets as long as you have flow and a heater. Just try to keep salinity stable. If you have your tank set up you might as well throw it in. When you get the base rock just add it to the tank. Even though it is base rock, it will still have a lot of dead organics on it that will cause a cycle so no livestock until all your rock has been added and cycled.

 

[Meadowlark]

ok. I just bought 25 pounds of base rock from the marcos place you guys recommended. I'll put the other live rock in my tank in the morning. Hopefully this is all I'll need for awhile. I'm in between jobs right now and relying on my wife's income for one more week when I'll be back at work.

Drummereef- seems like you're my on-call answer guy. You always answer my questions right away. Thanks a million!