High Ammonia w/curing live rock

Question
Hi Paul.

Okay, I started my 72 gal cycle w/ 45 lbs of Fiji pre-cured Live rock yesterday (6/22). I ordered it from Dr Fosters and Smiths.

My current set up is;
Emperor 400 bio-wheel filter
(185 gph) canister filter
Seaclone Protein skimmer
Power head and a couple of heaters.

I've done a lot of research on cycling w/ LR but once I got it, was lost as to what exactly I am to clean and remove. I scrubbed and removed the obvious dead plants and sponges w/ water of the same salinity and temp as my tank
and then placed them in there. This morning I tested the water and it was over 5 mgs! I noticed more dead algae and other plants or whatever they are so I took the rock out and cleaned it once again and placed them back into the tank and then did a 20% WC.

I tested this evening and my ammonia is still high;
Ammonia 5 mg+
Nitrite .5
pH 8
Temp 77
Salinity 1.023

Am I not getting the rock properly cleaned? Thats all I can guess is that there is still dying and decaying plants/coraline/ etc. that I am missing. The rock does have a few spots of a brite green and red coraline, however the rest is kind of a duller green, is this coraline algae dead? And if so, should I remove this? How do I know what I should remove? In addition, the tank does have a fowl smell, but I am assuming this is to be expected while curing, correct?

In point, it seems there is alot of things dying. I keep finding all kinds of dead larva and worms. Are these dying because of the poor water quality? Is this a sign I need to change the water more?

I did an AMquel as recommended on the bottle. Wasnt too sure about doing a another WC so shortly after the previous one.. Hope this helps you in determing what is going on w/ my set up.

Thanks for your time.

Paul.  

Answer
all sounds perfectly normal mate, do NOT do anymore water changes untill ammonia and nitrIte are zero as this will hinder the cycling proces. also get your SG up to about 1.025-1.027.

just gotta leave it to get on with things, as the bacteria build up it will convert all the ammonia and nitrItes into nitrAtes, you do the water changes to bring the nitrAtes down.