ph out of the tap here is 8 to 8.4, i haven't tested kh or gh yet. I would like to keep a few larger fish that are fun to feed, I don't really care about how active the fish are for the most part, but it would be nice to have one or two fish that are more active so the tank is fun to watch for more than 10 to 30 minutes a day when I feed. I do really want to keep both fronts and larger plecos, but if they wouldn't work in this size tank I'm totally open to keeping what ever fish you or others think would work well. I really want to keep the front mostly because my whole family likes him and not many people in my area have a big enough tank to house such a fish (he has been in a small tank for 5 or more weeks). For an adult front he/she is pretty small around 9 to 10 inches.