There is an alternative to fishless cycling, although moderators on the site seem inclined toward that approach in particular. Quite a few members introduce hardy fish such as zebra danios at the outset to quickly establish helpful bacteria colonies in your filter system. It's my approach and I have so far set up 3 x 10 gallon tanks and 1 x 5 gallon tank and, so far, have not lost a single fish or suffered an outbreak of disease. All 3 10 gallon tanks are moderately to heavily planted and I make weekly water changes. You need to buy a good water testing kit as you will want to monitor levels of ammonia (from fish waste), nitrites and nitrates on a daily or 2-day basis - this is not a difficult thing to do. With s small number of hardy fish, your bacteria will build to cope with their waste in a few weeks, and when you add more fish, you need to keep monitoring your water to make sure the bacteria are coping with the additional 'biological load' or 'bioload' (essentially ammonia and nitrites). Plants are important to this process for me, although some manage 'fishy cycles' without live plants. The live plants absorb ammonia and help to keep the water safe. To make plants grow (if they are not growing, they are not removing ammonia and may even make your water chemistry worse), you will need special aquarium fertilizer (often called 'ferts' on this site), plus some gravel, sand or soil-like material like Flourite or Laterite or peat with a sand covering - for the plants to take root in. You can also grow plants without rooting, and some of these floating plants are the very best at converting ammonia into harmless substances - plants like cabomba and hornwort. Plants need adequate lighting, which also helps to show off the fish, and many aim for a minimum of 2 watts per gallon (minimum of 20 watts of light for a 10 gallon tank, using some form of flourescent lamp unit in the tank hood). Check out the 'planted tank' section for more information. I am not saying the fishless cycle is not advisable, but it is certainly not the only option, so I have posted this just to be fair.
The only fish I'd try for a 10g are sparkling gouramis or Nannostomus beckfordi for a start. Later on, you can try threadfin rainbowfish.
