I have a new 28 gal bowfront tank I'm going to set up soon. No goldfish this time, but tropical. I'm looking for preferably something that does not multiply like crazy and is rather peaceful.

Please give me some ideas so I can plan on decorations, etc.

Do you want lots of colour and a busy tank which would be danios and tetras or do you want a centre piece fish such as a paradise fish or an angel and build up the fish around that? How long is the tank and how deep? Do you plan on gravel or sand and are you having live plants?

A busy tank sounds like fun. The tank is 24 x 19 x 14. No live plants, and I plan on gravel. I had tetras years ago and they were fun little fish. If I get danios and tetras, what would be the maximum? I want to make sure I don't overstock.

As long as filtration is at least 4 times the tank capacity you can get 6 danios for the top area, 4 phantom or red phantom tetras for the middle/bottom. For the bottom 3 cory will look nice and eat any leftovers. And to swim in all levels maybe 6 pencilfish and 6 to 10 neons.
Only add a group at a time on a new tank if the filter isnt established. These fish have such a small bioload that you can overstock them, so the tank should be able to handle that many fish.
If you want an algae eater later on such as an oto or two or a bristlenose or another small plec then substitute a group of fish for it.

Thank you Sandy for your excellent advice. That sounds really wonderful!

Do any of these fish need hiding places? The cory maybe?

A few tall plants and some caves for the cory and they also like to sit on flat stones. Cory are meat eaters as well so give them some bloodworm.
Look forward to seeing what you pick, so remember to put a pic up.

That gives me a good idea how to arrange things. Thank you so much for all the great advice and ideas!!

Oh, should I find aquarium sand (which is highly unlikely) would that work for those kind of fish, or is the gravel better?

The cory prefer the sand but if you cant get it then pea sized gravel will also do.

Glad to help