Why is the cycle taking so long??

[Chikadee]

I set up my 10gal snail tank at the same time as I set up my 30gal. I seeded both of them with a sponge filter from an established tank and did a fishy cycle on both tanks with daily water changes. After about 3 weeks, my 30gal was completely cycled (that was about 3 weeks ago) and is doing really well with 0 ammonia/nitrites. However, it's been 6 weeks since I started cycling my 10gal and the ammonia levels are 0 but the nitrites are STILL way too high (like 2 or 3 [acronym:91f7d74028="Parts per Million"]ppm[/acronym:91f7d74028]) I am doing daily water changes but don't know what else to do. I don't have any substrate in that tank, so does that mean bacteria has less surface area to grow on?? I am also using a small box filter, since I am only keeping snails, ghost shrimp and a few guppies in it. Definitely not a heavy bioload. Is there anyway I can speed this up a bit? What am I doing wrong??