Sorry about the gents, thing, no insult meant
Here is the short version, I hope is answers your Qs.
There are multiple ways to use plants in the cycling process. The reason for this is that there are ton off different plants which need different conditions and which consume different things at different rates. For someone like Byron who has great experience using plants, this is not a challenge. But for new fish keepers or even experienced ones new to live plants, this issue needs to be simplified and made less daunting to use.
The basic general rules are, the more nutrients any plant can uptake, the more light and co2 it needs. Floating plants and most stem plants will usually offer the best solution for the beginner. They are generally easy to grow as well. Then there is the volume/coverage factor, or more plants = the more ammonia and even some nitrate are consumed. Making sure the plants are doing OK before adding fish is always a good idea.
It is common to define planting density in a tank as being either light, moderate or heavy. Then if one is trying to do higher lighting and regular fertilization in some form, this will magnify things in terms of nutrient needs and hands on care. But most new to plant folks should not be trying to do higher light, lots of ferts and co2 supplimented tanks.
How one plants a tank using the above principles will determine how much of the maximum capacity fish load any tank can handle in terms of being cycled is safe to put into the tank all at once, Here it is always better to suffer the test of patience by doing it too slowly than to risk harming fish by doing it to rapidly.
As a rule lightly planted tanks need the most bacterial help and heavily planted tanks need the least. This determines how one should modify the instructions in the fishless cycling here which uses 3 ppm of ammonia as the target dosage to use. But most plants will not do well with a lot of ammonia (NH3) in the water. So if you are planting lightly, reduce the ammonia dose to be 2 ppm. If you are moderately planted, reduce it to 1 ppm. If you are planting heavily, you will only need to do a 24 test at 2 ppm. If that doesnt read 0, wait until it does and redo the test. When it produces 0 in 24, add fish
I always suggest planting the tank and allowing some time for them to establish. This is less important if using the stems and floaters to start, You are allowed to change plants over time. The use of plants is going to change all the numbers as they are listed in the fishless article. This is because any of the Ammonia consumed by the plants will not result in nitrite and thus no nitrate either. Only the bacteria will make these. In some cases, with enough plants, you may never see any nitrite or nitrate. You will know the tank is safe when it handles the final test dose in 24 hours or less. For a heavily planted tank, it will handle 2 ppm within 24 almost immediately.
What about doing the cycle and then planting? It creates a few problems. The more plants in a tank, the less work is done by the bacteria in filters and on decor and other hard surfaces in a tank. If you want plants to establish, they need nutrients one of which is NH4. But if you have established enough bacteria to process 3 ppm of ammonia in under 24 hours, that is a fair amount of competition for the plants, even if they do use NH4 faster than the bacteria use NH3. So you should adjust the fishless ammonia dosing according to your intended planting level, do not use 3 ppm. Start with less- 1 or 2 ppm. If you want to plant heavily, just do it, wait a bit as indicated and then do a 2 ppm final test.
If you plant first and give them some time, 10-14 days, while dosing ammonia, the bacteria can only increase based on what the plants do not use. You end up with the right amount of bacteria which takes a lot less time than doing a full cycle first, then planting and waiting for the plants to settle in. Plus, if you want to insure the plants can uses NH4 to the greatest extent they can, you will have to continue adding ammonia every couple of days at a level that insures the bacterial colonies adjust to maintain a proper balance with the plants as to what portion of the ammonia each handles.
Now for adding fish. Here is a suggested guideline: (It assume one will not overstock their tank.)
Lightly planted, add 1/4 of the fish load to start. Test about every 12 hours, When you read 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate, you can add the next 1/4 of the fish. Test again and when you have all 0s, add the next 1/4, test again and all 0s means add the rest.
Moderately planted, follow the above method of add and test except add fish in 1/3rd of the final load each time.
Heavily planted use the same method of add and test except add fish 50% with each addition.
-Be sure to change 50 of the water weekly in all of the above.
-Feed sparingly for the first few days after you add fish.
-If anything goes seriously wrong in terms of test results, change water, reduce the rate of adding fish and add fewer. You can always throw in more stems, even floating as well as more floaters to increase ammonia consumption.
Please remember that one of the hardest skills to learn on the way to becoming a seasoned fish keeper is patience. More often than not, acting too quickly has killed more fish than waiting to act. To quote The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: DON"T PANIC
