Cycling a new tank - plant before or after?

[landrumdh]

I'm looking to enter the world of having fish again. It has been about 10 years since my last tank and I'm sure I got it all wrong

I'm looking at doing about a 30 gallon tank and want to have it planted as I dislike fake plants. When I cycle the tank (fishless of course!) can the plants be in there getting used to their new home or should I wait to add the plants after the cycle has completed.

I'm also looking at using sand as my substrate instead of gravel as I think the sand tanks I'm seeing here look much better then the gravel (and i didn't care for it in my last tank either). Does this impact what plants I should be looking for?

 

[pearl_aqg]

It's safe to have plants during your cycle, in fact it'll speed up the process since plants consume ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

I believe that coarse sand is fine for most plants, but I'll let one of the experienced plant people here field this one