Planted Newbie! Advice Please.

[Artemis89]

I am totally new to planted tanks so be kind!
 
I have a couple of other tanks which I fishless cycled without a problem but now I'm looking at starting my first planted tank I'm finding a lot of conflicting advice. To cycle or not to cycle? And if I do go with the fishless cycle, at what point should I introduce the plants?

 
I want something very low tech as I don't really want to have to be injecting co2 or anything. I was thinking of going with anubias, java ferns, java moss and maybe some hornwort. Would this work?
 
Thanks everyone!

It's a 40g tank btw. I plan on keeping platys, hence the hornwort for fry to hide in! Any other floating suggestions are welcome though as I don't really want something that's going to take over.

 

[noobgamers]

plants can be added at any point in the cycle as to them ammonia nitrite and nitrate are plant food to them you can under certain circumstances keep fish in a heavily planted tank without cycling due to their ability to soak up nutrients but i odnt think this will work due to the fact that you wont have enough plants and also it is extremely risky . for the plants you want i thinkt hey should be fine but just to be sure can you post the wattage you have 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hello and 

 
First off, I would always advise to do a Fishless cycle on any tank that you plan to put in live stocking.
 
I would say, since you already have cycled tanks, is to use some filter media form one of these tank, not more than a third at most of filter media and use that to cycle your tank, should cycle very quickly and use ammonia to 3ppm to ensure vacs are up to strength.
 
THEN add plants after the cycle.
 
The plants you listed, Java Fern, Java Moss, Hornwort, Anubias are all low level plants, meaning they don't require co2, or high lights etc.
 
Elodea, vallis, water wisteria and cryptocorynes are other types of low tech plants you may want to consider as well.
 
However adding some liquid ferts will help keep your plants nice and healthy, all plants benefits from additional nutrients from liquid ferts.
 
Hope that helps.
 
EDIT - forgot to add, if you war floating plants, i'd suggest perhaps silvania natans, have had those before in my tank, a nice easy floating plant to have.

 

[Stimo]

Just to add on the floating plants ive got amazon frogbit and dwarf water lettuce , very easy to look after

 

[Artemis89]

Thanks everyone! Thankfully I have a local shop that specialises in aquascaping and they stock pretty much every aquatic plant on earth (their claim not mine! lol) so I'll ask about those plants there.
 
Not sure about wattage as the tank is stored at my dad's atm. I'll post when I pick it up.