Starting an African cichlid tank

I'm following the recommendation of a user on the forum and making my 80 gallon tank an african cichlid aquarium. I've looked through the forum, and realized that there's a bunch of cichlids to choose from! What cichlids would be good for me to start with? How many should I get? Are there certain species to avoid?

I'd start with 3 trios of whatever cichlids you decide on. I keep Melanochromis parallelus, Pseudotropheus demasoni and Labidchromis caeruleus together in my 55g. I wouldn't recommend any Melanochromis species as a first mbuna though. Most of them are more aggressive than normal. I'd also avoid kenyii, aka lombardoi, for the same reason. Look at keeping cichlids that have the same kind of diets, similar aggression levels and don't look too much alike. Another one of my larger tanks contains Aulonocara maisoni and Protomelas spilonatus "mara rocks", both do better with more protein in their diets, so they match up well with each other. I might add some kind of "hap" later on.

A couple other questions come to mind. Are there any live plants that would work well with cichlids? I really like the look of planted tanks.

Java fern and Anubias seem to do alright with Rift Lake cichlids. Most plants just get shredded and eaten.

Last question: what is a good heater with remote control? The Tetra brand heater in my 10 gallon kinda sucks, so I'd like something that works pretty well and doesn't require me to constantly stick my hand in the water for adjustments.

Ebo jaeger. No remote control, but they're dependable.