Oscars with Convict

That's great news, thank you! Will my pH be okay do you think? Right now I'm leaving towards rainbowfish, maybe a trio of swordtails, and Cory cats.
What is you GH and KH? These are the most important, though swordtails and ranbowfish (depending on kind you choose) need a pH above 7.0. If your water is hard enough for swordtails and rainbowfish, and if you want cories, corydoras aeneus and c. paleatus are your best choice.
I must agree with @Wills on the convict, they are very aggressive cichlids, where I'm speaking out of my experience only. I had a pair of pink convict cichlids, at start they were fairly docile, but then they spawned for the first time and they weren't as aggressive but for the second time they spawned, suprisingly the eggs hatched, they got overly aggressive and they attacked my female until she got sick and passed, other fish in the tank were hounded to death, very stressed.
I hate convicts for that very reason, the female swordtail was my most favorite fish in the tank and was my very first swordtail and I got her for free too.
 
I'm definitely not interested in keeping the convict; aggressive fish aren't my thing. My hardness is 11.7/200 depending on which unit you're using, according to my water district. It's going to get harder next year as the district adds in well water.

Right now I'm thinking about a stocking list something vaguely like this:

-School of rainbowfish: maybe 8, mixture of Boesemans, dwarf sunset (which is actually a 4" fish apparently), either dwarf neon or turquoise
-Trio of swordtails
-small school of cories, I'll look into the varieties recommended
-bristlenose pleco or similar, to control algae.

What do you think?
 
Dwarf sunset (which is actually a 4" fish apparently)

I've found conflicting sizes on these, some places state them as the same as dwarf neons at 8cm others say 12cm. There are a few videos of them on YouTube and even when mature they dont look as big as something like a Boesemani.

With Rainbow fish it is important to keep big numbers of one species, in a 75g you should be able to accommodate decent numbers of 1-2 species. If you went for the Boesemani or Turquoise they are a bigger fish so would allow a smaller school, the dwarf species would allow bigger schools.

6 Larger rainbows
8 Smaller rainbows
3 Swordtails (to start with...)
10 Cories 20"
2 Bristlenose

Would be pretty achievable I think. If you went with the Dwarf Neon Rainbows not sure if I would go for the Boesemani or Tuquoise as its a lot of blue. You Reds would look cool as a contrast to the neon blues but they do get really big. There are some really nice species quite easily available now so it would be worth looking round shops to see what you can find :)

Wills
 
Look up fish requirements for fish you want to get on seriouslyfish.com .
Cories need a shoal of 6 or more, in a 75 gallon about 12-20 to make them happy.
11 dGH is a moderately hard water.
 
Oh and my water district couldn't tell me the gh or KH, just "total harness".

Total hardness is General Hardness, also sometimes termed permanent hardness because unlike carbonate hardness (KH or Alkalinity) the mineral content cannot be removed through boiling. As the water evaporates the mineral salts can be left behind, but they cannot be removed from the water itself.
 
I'm definitely not interested in keeping the convict; aggressive fish aren't my thing. My hardness is 11.7/200 depending on which unit you're using, according to my water district. It's going to get harder next year as the district adds in well water.

Right now I'm thinking about a stocking list something vaguely like this:

-School of rainbowfish: maybe 8, mixture of Boesemans, dwarf sunset (which is actually a 4" fish apparently), either dwarf neon or turquoise
-Trio of swordtails
-small school of cories, I'll look into the varieties recommended
-bristlenose pleco or similar, to control algae.

What do you think?

Cories need a soft sand substrate, something to keep in mind. And shoaling fish like rainbowfish require groups of the individual species as Wills pointed out above. Some of the rainbows need groups of 8, so depends upon species.

Do not count on any fish to control algae. Common algae will be eaten by many of the herbivorous plecos like Bristlenose, also otos, Farlowella, some Rineloricaria. But when one is saddled with problem algae, these fish do not touch it.
 
I'm thinking black sand since I read something about dark substrate for Rainbowfish.

Do you have any tips for crystal clear water and not too much of an algae problem? I love that clear, clear water.
 
Algae comes about if you have too much light and too many nutrients and no plants to use that energy. Some fast growing plants like hygropilla siamensis ‘53b’, anarchis, Java fern and also slower growing but big plants like amazon swords and cryptocorynes. Picking a low watt light that still looks good is really important too, as Byron said a fine sand is best for cories so you might want to add root tabs in to help the plants grow.

Crystal clear water comes from good filtration, clean filters and regular large water changes. With any tank it is really important to figure out an easy way to do water changes, I use long hoses and pumps rather than buckets. I’ve done buckets in the past and it just becomes a chore especially on 75 gallons so it’s worth planning a way to quickly get the water out the tank and to a drain or outside and fresh water back to the tank.

Wills
 
Sounds about right! Very hard water here, by household standards.

This illustrates the problem with using subjective terms rather than actual numbers. The GH we worked out earlier is moderate hardness, no where near "very hard" for fish. That's why we always ask for numbers. You have as I said many options for fish suited to your water.
 
Just thought I'd update everyone. It is a 60g tank, and I do already have these guys listed for sale. I was eyeballing peacock cichlids when I thought the tank was a 75g but since it's smaller, and after remembering how much more difficult water changes are when there's small children involved, I think I'll go with a lower maintenance community tank after all. I'm still debating angelfish although I know my water isn't ideal and some say they should only be kept in large shoals in a single species tank. Others find them to be good community fish with the right partners like tetras and swordtails. Still looking at rainbows as well. It's hard to decide!
 

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I'm still debating angelfish although I know my water isn't ideal and some say they should only be kept in large shoals in a single species tank. Others find them to be good community fish with the right partners like tetras and swordtails. Still looking at rainbows as well. It's hard to decide!
Angelfish are aggressive and soft water fish, so are neons.
Neons are natural food for angels. Angelfish need 55 gallon tank for a pair, they need to be in shoals of 4 or more and they need to be a mated pair if you want to breed them, and when they spawn they will get aggressive as they are still cichlids. Swordtails need hard water.
 
I would stick to fish that suit your water it makes life easier as it’s replicating nature and in most situations there is a good balance to be struck with what sort of look you want in terms of numbers, colours, shapes and activity. For example rather than angels how about pearl gourami and instead of neon tetras you could get rummy nose rasboras which still have bright red and neon steel blue.
 

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