Hi all, i need some advice.

I got a 30g tank and just bought around 20kg of uncured live rock. I didn't pre-clean the rock and placed them in my tank which has been running with saltwater for about 2 weeks. The next few days the tank gets really muddy and alot of worms came out and just die slowly, some worms is as big as my little fingers. The water smells so bad so i decided to do a water change. I tested for ammonia and it went off the roof, something 8+ppm (8 was the highest the test can read) but there was no sign of nitrite. It has been a week now and the ammonia is still around 8+ppm and still no nitrite despite 3 water changes so far since I got the live rock because it stank the whole house. I left the actinic light on for 5-6 hrs each day because I was hoping to keep the corals that came with the live rock, despite the high ammonia level... I also use "bacteria in a bottle"- Seachem Stability everyday and unsure wether it does anything.

My question is how long does the cycle takes because it has been a week and my water is still so muddy and smelly. Also, is there any chance the coral will survive? Any help would be great.

P.S I don't have a skimmer =/

Thanks in advance.

In my experience ammonia last about a week or so but it seems to be really strong in your tank. Nitrites took about two weeks for me. I would buy some extra salt and keep up with large water changes. I believe your ammonia levels to be way over the level needed to cycle so i wouldn't worry about killing the cycle with water changes if their is such a thing.

www.jdak.net

Take a bucket of saltwater and just shake the rocks off. I wouldn't think you need to scrub them or anything. You could do larger water changes than 10% if you want too.