mslfl wrote:

I have a 29G tank and have been fishless cycling for the past two
weeks. I am on the reduced ammonia addition portion of the process
(about 0.5 mL ammonia added 1x/day) - ammonia is running 0 - 0.25,
nitrites greater than 5.0.

Some folks claim that planted tanks never cycle, because the plants eat
all the ammonia before bacteria have a chance to cycle it into nitrate.

Other folks say this is nonsense, plant tanks have all the same bacteria,
because you can't keep the bacteria OUT of the tank. Plant tanks just have
smaller colonies of the bacteria because the plants are eating so much
nitrogen.

In any case, you have added plants in the middle of the nitrite portion of
the cycle. This will throw off your ability to plot nice clean ammonia and
nitrite spikes. So just do the following:

1. Wait until ammonia and nitrate are zero. Whether it's bacteria or
plants eating the ammonia, who cares, it's gone.

2. Slowly add fish. Do not add any fish within 24 hours of dosing ammonia!

You may also want to read how other people do it:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_newtank.htm