Low Tech Planted Talk And Cycling

[eduller]

I have a new, empty 55 gallon tank to cycle. I also just had foot surgery, so I have time to sit around and plan and obsess until I heal a little and can actually do something with the tank. I want to do this the right way.
 
I don't have the experience or knowledge or time to do a real planted tank, but I want to put some plants in. I have a list from these helpful forums of plants that don't require actually being "planted" but you can just attach to driftwood, so that's what I'm going to do. I've read the post on why not to fishless cycle a planted tank due to algae growth. My questions are:
 
1 - Can I just throw a couple of snails in to take care of the algae during the cycle? I want to have snails in the tank anyway. Will it harm the snails to be in the tank while I cycle it? They seem fairly hardy and the ones I have are happy little guys. 
 
2 - Is it feasible to do a "semi-planted" tank where I kind of put planted substrate around the back perimeter of the tank (it's a corner tank, so meaning along the V part) and then regular gravel for the rest? Is there even any point to that? Would I put in some kind of divider between the 2 types of substrate?
 
3 - Going totally off topic here, but I didn't want to create multiple posts. The tank came with a Marineland Magnum 350 filter. I've been reading up on them and about the pros and cons, and I think I want to go the route described here: http/www.oscarfish.com/article-home/equipment/108-magnum-350-simple-modifications.html and make the modifications. Has anyone done something similar? I actually already have a Penguin 350 a friend gave me. If so, or if you take a look at the link, how would you attach the prefilter foam to the inflow tube? Just cut a hole and slide it over? 
 
Thanks very much for your time

 

[allydawn17]

of course you could do semi planted! I think  your idea with the plants around the back sounds pretty cool, and you don't necessarily have to put a divider between the two substrates if you don't mind them mingling a bit. Snails in a cycling tank should be alright, but they won't help too much with the cycle seeing as they don't produce too much waste. I'm not sure about the filter, sorry ):

 

[daizeUK]

Yes ammonia will harm the snails. I wouldn't deliberately put snails in a cycling tank.

Different substrates will tend to mix together unless you physically separate them somehow. Personally I wouldn't bother with the effort unless you're going to plant the substrate quite heavily. You can also consider Tropica substrate to go underneath your gravel at the back if you like.

No idea about the filter, you will probably be better off making a separate thread for that!

 

[eduller]

I was looking at using the Caribsea eco conplete as the substrate because there is a store right by my house that sells it very cheap. Do you think that would work?

 

[Ryan10]

You could put the plant substrate where you want it than cap it with the final substrate and you will never know its under there if you don't want a two tone look.