Smaller cichlids?

[superfantastic]

I've got a 37 gallon tank that's about 22" high and a bunch of limestone. I'm looking to start a cichlid tank and I'm looking for recommendations on smaller colorful species that like hard water with high ph. Preferably species that are no more than 3" full grown so overcrowding won't be an issue later on. I've tried searching online but the variety of species is overwhelming. Any help would be appreciated.

[ajm1961]

As soon as you mentioned "high Ph", I'm thinking you may want to go with Tanganykan cichlids. Of course, if your Ph is something around 8.3-8.5, cichlids from lakes Victoria and Malawi should be fine as well.
I am not as familiar with the cichlids from Lake Tanganyka, but found this "cookie cutter" page from Cichlid_forum which may be of help to you:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/cookie_cutter_29g.php

This set-up is for a 29 gallon tank - but for cichlids, it's not so much the height that matters, but the length. A 29 g is 30" long, same as your 37g.

I would not overcrowd the tank because of its relatively small size - in my opinion, it is tougher to maintain water parameter stability in a smaller setup than a bigger one. But this also goes against the thought of keeping aggressive behaviour in check. So, I would have to defer to the Cichlid-forum's "cookie cutter" setup for species and numbers. From what I see there, there a nice combination for Tanganykan -  "Julies " and Altolamprologus are nice species. I also like to Hap sp. 44 from Victoria - nice colours.

Just my thoughts, hope it helps.