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I would go with the base rock to save some money that's better spent on other aspects of the tank. The base rock will be identical in appearance to the live rock within the span of several months anyway.
I bought 40lbs of base rock today and now this is what my tank looks like. I now have 70lbs of rocks in it. I am still trying to figure out how to do some good aqua-scaping.
Takes some work to get it right, your on the right track though. I think you need about 110-120lbs total to make it look really good. That's just my opinion though. Looking good man