Newbie - Help me stock my 20 gallon tank! :)

[smbills12]

20 Gallon Tank -
Size is approximately 25.75 x 14.25 x 18.62 Inches

pH seems to be 7.8, alkaline.. GH seems to be 150, hard.
[Colors are close.. pH could be 7.2]

Looking for peaceful community fish. We are very new at this and still getting educated. If you could please provide a list of compatible fish and how many of each of them, I would like to get around 15-20 total! Thanks so much!!

 

[OrionGirl]

What kind of tank are you going for? Planted? Heated? Want livebearers?

With that size, a school of small tetras, smaller cories (pygmy or habrosus would be ideal), and a gouramie would be fine. My preference would be planted, as well. There's a chance the cories will breed, but unlikely to cause population issues with the gouramie there.

 

[ustabefast]

Your water is not hard, at least by So Cal standards where our water comes out of the tap at PH8.3 and tds around 800ppm, and yet we often keep soft water fish in such conditions.
You could keep soft water as well as hard water fish; basically 98% of the fish you see at the store would do ok.
15 or 20 means you're looking for smaller varieties in the one inch range for your schoolers.
Most small tetras and rasboras would fit the bill unless you want to go the livebearer route instead.
As Oriongirl says, a group of cories on the bottom and a shoal of tetras or rasboras as schoolers would work great.
Maybe add a honey gourami or two, or a dwarf cichlid as a signature fish.
Here is a nice example: 8 harlequin rasboras, 6-8 panda or other small cories, and 2 honey dwarf gouramis.

 

[FreshwaterOceanChicken]

Honestly, if you want 15-20 fish they will have to be smaller. Tetras, Rasboras, Cories, Ect... However, if you want to have a school of smaller fish and then some centerpiece fish, you could do some danios or mollies (I think they would be cool) or even some gouramis who are said to be aggressive, but I have never EVER known them to be.