8 white clouds in a 40g is a nice light bio load provided you don't overfeed. A cycle should be slow and steady. 6-8weeks. I'd do a 50% weekly water change every week at a minimum.
Cool, that's good to hear! I was originally going in to get 4 or 5 small fish, i was a little skeptical when the guy at the store told me i could keep 10 white clouds in that tank while it's cycling, so i got 8 instead. Would i actually be ok getting 2 more? I know these little guys like being in larger schools, and i really liked the longfin versions of them.Plants will help use ammonia (or nitrate or nitrite) if they are healthy and growing.
The faster the plant grows, the more it will use (and more of other nutrients too, including CO2 and light).
So, you might be better with lots of slower growing plants than a few faster growing. Or growing something terrestrial, but aquaponically in your filter would work well (Say Pothos)
But you should be fine, just keep watching your water parameters and change water where needed.
On a side note, how long should i wait to get trumpet snails or shrimp? should i just wait out the full cycling period first with just the clouds?
When i was looking into using tetra safestart it seems like it can cycle a tank within about 2 weeks? and it also states on the bottle that i can't do water changes until after two weeks. (that has me a little worried, but it does say that it's makes the water safe for fish so i'm choosing to trust it)
The plants i picked out were java fern, dwarf baby tears, wisteria and another that i forgot the name of (it was the only one i didn't plan on getting, but the store didn't have any chain swords so i thought they were a good replacement)
Here's a picture of my tank by the way, i want to go back to get a taller plant like an amazon sword to go in that back corner with the ferns. I think that would complete the tank nicely.