I live in Madison, WI and can sympathize with your rock hard water. A
10 gal tank is pretty small for most African cichlids, but they thrive
in my 54 gal corner tank. You might post a few questions to:

http://www.cichlidforum.com/

asking what species would work for a 10 gal tank.

What type of filtration are you using? The benefical bacteria will
grow in your gravel and on your ornaments, but they will be abundant in
a good sponge filter or bio wheel. I had a 2 gal tank with a UGF and
it took quite a while to cycle - eventually the LFS squeezed the
contents of one of his filters into a bag for me and I finally got the
bugger cycled.