I am new to the forum and cichlid keeping. Hoping for some advice to help me make up my mind about sticking.
I have a 75 gallon tank with two Eheim Classic canister filters (2215?, I think), fully cycled that I am maintaining the bacteria with pure ammonia. Ammonia and nitrite have been 0 for at least a week, nitrates are over 80, and will be doing a water change to lower before adding fish.
My tap water Ph is high, plus I have flagstone decorations and aragonite substrate. Tank Ph is around 8.2.
Onto the stocking question. I am completely overwhelmed with the stocking decision! I am still deciding if I should go with peacock, haps, some combo or Mbunas. There are a few factors that are important to me:
1. I prefer not to have blood in my tank. I know cichlids are aggressive but hoping that I can come up with a stocking choice where I won’t have fish kill other fish
2. I like blue fish. I really like c moorii and star sapphire (Placidochromis something)
3. I like striped fish. I love Frontosas, but I believe my tank is too small

4. I would love to see a process of breeding, but not interested in selling fish or being overrun with fry. I only have a 10 gallon planted tank that currently has some snails, ghost shrimp, a placo and a single guppy.
5. I Would like to add some catfish if stocking levels allow. I have a sizable Pleco that used to live in this tank when I bought it that I plan on putting back in
6. I would like to have more than one species of fish in the tank for color, but if that’s not a good idea because of the breeding, I can count catfish as another species
From what I understand if I want to breed any peacocks, then I can only have a single species. In that case what else could I add to the tank?
Could I have a single species for breeding (eg blue dolphins, star sapphire or a peacock) and different species for more color?
Could I use the 10 gallon to raise some of the fry?
I will stock in at least two batches. First one is this Sunday and second in about two weeks when my LFS has a 20% off sale and a larger selection.
Attaching a photo of my setup.
Thanks for any advice!