Gourami tank mates and water alkalinity

[zackGfishnstuff]

I recently got gourami's for the 1st time, Can anybody give me a good list of potential tank mates, I've almost always had a Betta in my tank but after some research it seems that I cannot keep a Betta and gouramis in the same tank, opinions?
When doing water changes for the most part I find that my tap water has good qualities (no nitrites/nitrates, soft water), However my water is very alkaline and has roughly a ph value of 8, I would rather not get treated water every time I want to do a water change. Should I worry about this, and is there any way I can adjust this at home?

 

[Yrthling]

My 20gal tank has 2 dwarf flame gouramis with 6 barb cherries. They are fine with each other, no fin nipping or chasing. The male bar cherries would only chase after their own kind and the dwarf gourami chase their own. If you do care about breeding fish, I would not keep them together as my gouramis look like they go after the eggs when my barb cherries were breeding the other day.

As for water parameters, I hope someone can help out here since I am new to fish keeping. My gouramis seem to be very hardy fish and doing well for 3 weeks now (even in low 0.25 - 0.5 ppm ammonia concentrations).

 

[ProudPapa]

I recently got gourami's for the 1st time. . .

What kind of gouramis?

 

[zackGfishnstuff]

What kind of gouramis?

Silver gourami's, and I forgot to say 50 gallon tank

My 20gal tank has 2 dwarf flame gouramis with 6 barb cherries. They are fine with each other, no fin nipping or chasing. The male bar cherries would only chase after their own kind and the dwarf gourami chase their own. If you do care about breeding fish, I would not keep them together as my gouramis look like they go after the eggs when my barb cherries were breeding the other day.

As for water parameters, I hope someone can help out here since I am new to fish keeping. My gouramis seem to be very hardy fish and doing well for 3 weeks now (even in low 0.25 - 0.5 ppm ammonia concentrations).

I have been keeping them with guppies and they have been pretty docile so far, thanks for the Input