am I close to being able to add a clown?

[PotatoPig]

excuse me, the rock was pulled from a water filtration tank at LFS and delivered to me in a water vessel and they specifically told me it was live rock, the owner of the store, a very busy store in the county. The busiest very specifically told me it was live rock. I just can't imagine that he would have a reason to lie.
So my reputable LFS is committing fraud, misrepresenting what they are selling me? i'm not sure if we can get past this text unless we can get past that accusation. but I suppose it wouldn't bepast the bale of possibilities of Lfs casually mischaracterizing something. how sure are you? the otherwise i'll take them to task
besides that, I appreciate the values provided on measurements I'm looking for.

I don’t think anyone is accusing anyone, especially you, of anything. More that folks are trying to look out for you here as from the evidence available at the time it looked a lot like you have Liferock or similar.

Liferock and their parallels are painted dry rock, and are all the very distinctive purple color you have, and both the companies that make them and many (not all) vendors have a habit of blurring the description between these products and actual live rock.

A LOT of new folks show up on here with these products under the impression they have live rock, when they don’t. IMO there’s nothing inherently wrong with the products, but there are differences in both what they bring to the tank and how you need to treat initial setup, which is important for your question at hand.

If these were from a big tank they keep at the LFS then you’ve got aquacultured rock, which is fine, though part of why people jumped to assuming it’s LifeRock or similar is the cycle recommendations you’ve been given - this rock should be pre-cycled and have zero die-off as it was kept warm and in water the whole time. It’s weird you’ve been told to wait weeks, perhaps it’s more the store is being highly cautious.