Ammonia still high after 4.5 weeks

[BostonJill]

I have two small vase tanks with plastic plants and cleaned shells, coral and sand. I placed some skimmed algae from my cycled tank into the two tanks about three weeks ago and placed them near the window so the algae would grow.
I now have plenty of what looks like brown fuzzy algae but when I tested the water after four and a half weeks I'm still getting .25 ppm of ammonia.
Is this normal?
Is there anything I could buy to speed things up that works?
I'm often reading other post stating their tanks are ready after around two to three weeks.
Have other people on this board set up little vase tanks and if so how long has it taken for the water parameters to be safe?

Thanks for your time!

[MelWong]

The brown fuzzy stuff is diatoms, and after the diatoms come green algae, so things are cycling on track, but not done cycling.

[jpccusa]

Look at my thread and you will see my parameters were never down to 0. I did not see any ill affects on the shrimp and they are now reproducing.
PS: I'm just sharing what I experienced and not suggesting what you should do.

[Mustafa]

PS: I'm just sharing what I experienced and not suggesting what you should do.

There is nothing wrong with suggesting what people should do as long as your advice seems to be grounded in valid data/experiences/results, and it will eventually help people in some way. No need to be shy about it!

I agree with JP and Mel...don't worry too much about your parameters right now. The tank is doing its thing...she shrimp will be just fine once they move in.