African lake setup

[Phoenixphire55]

I'm thinking about a setup for a 30 gallon standard tank in an African alkaline lake style. I would prefer to just have the look of an African lake without altering the water chemistry much. I'd have the back of the tank be a rock pile where slates, granites, etc are piled up. I would use metamorphic rock so they dont alter the water chemistry too much, and I'd have few to no plants. I'm moving to Denver so I think the water will be pretty hard. I'd like to put my mollies, cories and my pleco in the tank, and I'd also like to add several cichlids.
Can someone list some options that would work in this tank? I'm open to the idea of several small ones, or one or two larger ones, combinations etc.

[redchick2]

I'm not so sure I would put mollies with chiclids, unless of course, you rally don't like the mollies!