advice for my new tank

i cycled with 2 dwarf gouramis, and one ended up dieing. i think he was just a sick fish to begin with, but the LFS said that gouramis are sensitive to ph, i use a ph neutralizer that you can pick up anywhere, its a peice of cake to add to your tank as well. as far as tankmates though, somepeople say these guys are agressive, but mine is very shy. so i guess it depends on how aggressive yours are.

i havent kept gouramis, but if they are a bit agressive, then i would say you could probably get away with some danios, they're beautiful fish, very hardy, and very fast. i would say they could hold their own with gouramis...
peace
anna

As far as cycling goes, two small fish in 10 gallons will be slow to increase, especially since you have plants. Plants will use both ammonia and nitrates, preferring ammonia. In a well planted tank, you may never see an ammonia spike, and the bacteria bed will develop (though to a smaller size than in an unplanted tank). My advice is to continue monitoring the tank, and be ready to do water changes if needed.

I would not use the pH adjusting chemicals. They tend to come with a large quantity of unintended consequences--such as high phosphates and algae blooms--in addition to being a very short term fix. Altering water chemistry is not an easy matter, and those chemical additive cause massive swings that are deadly to fish.

For tankmates, I would add 4-5 cories, and call it good. The gouramies will have much better and outgoing behavior if not kept with zippy fish like most danios and tetras. I think harlequin rasporas are a slower fish, so you could swap the cories for 4-5 of them, and then add a small bottom feeder, like a dwarf bristlenose.

I would second the idea that a small school of cories would be great. Not only are they a fun fish to watch in their own right but it would be nice to have 2 different levels of fish, both top and bottom. I have a school of 3 in my 10 gallon and they are a blast to watch.