cycling w/ media from an established tank...

For a planted tank, here's what I would do. Do a water change on the larger tank, collecting the waste water in a bucket and cleaning the gravel well. Let this settle ovenight, then carefully siphon off the mulm that's settled to the bottom. Add this to the 10. Plant heavily, give them 2 weeks to establish and start growing. Then slowly start adding fish. While you can use ammonia, it's not recommended because the ammonia additions are typically done when the plants aren't settled in--they aren't gorwing and using ammonia, so algae takes over before the plants can. Going the route I described, you'll introduce much of the beneficial microfauna, give the plants time to start growing, and then gradually add fish--a combination of bacteria and plant use will take care of the ammonia from the fish as long as you go slowly.

The Cycle product is garbage--don't waste your money.

Adding 2 apistos, especially if these are juveniles, won't cause a strain if this is a heavily planted tank. You certainly can use the media from an established tank--I've pulled a sponge from my 40 and used it to setup a 10, no spikes at all. Just be careful, and make sure you give the plants time to establish themselves, or you may have algae issues.

no ammonia

If you can get the tank set up and planted and wait for 2 or 3 weeks this will be best. The plants will get over the shock of transplanting, and some may need to lose emersed grown leaves (better to do this before fish are in the tank as the rotting leaves are a source of pollution) As OriaonGirl said, use the mulm from the other tank during setup, I'd add it below the gravel, it will help the plants.

After 2 or 3 weeks, the plants are getting hungry, now you can add the fish. No need for ammonia to start the filters, not even for cycling with the barbs or the bottled products. If the tank if thickly planted and the plants are growing (do be sure the plants are visibly growing) then you will not see any ammonia. If you are nervous, you can add some filter squeezin's from the old tank at the same time you add the fish.

If you add ammonia to a planted tank, you are likely to ge algae, the plants are in shock for a while and the algae is faster to take in the ammonia.

The only bottle stuff that seems to actually work is BioSpira and it's been pulled because it was in too short of supply to meet demand. The other stuff (e.g., Cycle, StressZyme) has not been shown to work, and on every fish forum I visit it's considered snake oil.

Jim

Yep. From what I understand, Cycle may contain nitrifying bacteria, but not ones that will establish themselves in water. So, they don't help the tank get going at all. In addition, they contain other additives that are not needed, and often have negative, unintended consequences. Some bottled products are reliable and needed, but many are junk.

Chuck Gadd's site

Chuck Gadd's Site

This is a great site, be sure to read the article about how to set up a planted tank, his method works really well.