For the price of Caribsea base rock, you can have cost savings and assurance that you will avoid the problems with lava or tufa rock. With every shortcut there is a price to be paid later on - maybe you'll get lucky or your tank will be the one that turns out beautifully regardless.
Real rock (and real base rock) has so many aesthetic and functional advantages, many of them mentioned here. If the foundation of your reef tank is rock and sand, then do all you can to approximate nature. Are you going with a glass bead substrate?
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Alan
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