Stalled fishless cycle?

[Redpanda]

I would do a water change, then top up to 2ppm ammonia and see what happens.
Keep your eye on the ph.

I have done that as wanted to see how quickly it goes down, and it’s roughly 48 hrs.
I’ve been testing ph every now and again it’s always yellow around 7 - didn’t catch any drops .
I just want to add some shrimps and nerite. I know shrimps have very low load so partially thinking it would be ok, as currently it’s processing 1ppm a day.. but I know nerites can be messy ..

[plankton]

If you're just keeping shrimp and snails then cut back to 1ppm.
You may even get away with a 100% water change without adding more ammonia.

[RandomTeaPig]

Having a similar issue with my new 50. Nearly 7 weeks and still taking 3-4 days to clear ammonia.
Dirty brown algae/diatoms in overdrive. My beautiful white sand lol.
My first sponge filter so maybe they take longer?
All the kh/ph match my other tanks on cycle.
Anything outside of this that can affect it?

[fr499y]

Could be. How’s the flow through the sponge? Might need a light swish in tank water to help it along.

[RandomTeaPig]

Flow seems ok.
Will try and take the filter apart and swish it in tank water when i do a change tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks