Stocking a 29 Gallon tank

[robotsonmars]

I've had this 29 gallon tank for a while now, and a while ago I had a lot of fish die and haven't restocked it since then. The Ph is currently at 8.2, I've found it extremely difficult to keep it any lower than that.
I currently only have 5 Black skirted tetras in the tank and was thinking of putting in 6 corys, not sure what kind yet, that will probably depend on what kind they have at the pet store, 6 mollys of various colors, and a few snails.
What I wanted to know is, what kind and how many snails do you think I should get, what other fish would you recommend if there is room left for anything else, and do you think that that's too many fish already anyway, and how many fish should I add at a time?
Thanks tons!

 

[rlederer]

Perhaps you should find out why your pH is so high. Have you checked your source of water? I'm not in favor of using any kind of additives to increase or decrease pH as you will always be chasing it. If it is your well or city water, then maybe you should buy distilled or R/O water to dilute it. Or get an R/O setup, although that's probably not worth the time and money for you at this point.
You are not overstocked with fish but losing a lot of fish is a concern. It may or may not be the pH - have you checked the other water parameters? In any case, it seems prudent to get the tank stabilized before you add more fish.

 

[robotsonmars]

It is the city water. I've tried putting in driftwood and using chemicals to lower it but nothing I've done has been able to help. I don't think buying distilled water would really be an option either, unfortunately. My fish from before seemed to do ok with the Ph, I had the same tetras, mollies, and cory, and with the trouble I've had lowering the Ph maybe the fish are already used to that kind of water from the store? It's not petsmart or anything like that, they treat their animals very well at my local store. I'm not quite sure what my other levels are, I can check the Kh if you think I should. Is there anything else that I can do for the fish, or some other way to lower the Ph? Or do you think they'll be ok.

 

[Fresh2o]

You could check the LFS to see what the pH is with their source water. Could be similar. If not, then I would recommend a drip acclimation (in a nutshell, it is where you slowly drip the tank water into a bucket containing the new fish over a period of time).
Perhaps you can skip the mollies, add the corys, and double the number black skirts. Sure, not too diverse but I like the fish dynamics in larger numbers.

 

[rlederer]

I agree with Fresh 20. See what the pH at the fish store is.

 

[robotsonmars]

I'll definitely ask what the pH is at the store. Are mollies particularly sensitive to high pH? And are there any other kinds of fish that would do better that you can think of? Also, do you think that a bn pleco would do any better than cory would? Thank you guys!