Stocking A 50gal Tank

[kpris]

I'm going to be starting a 3ft(53 gallons) marine tank over the coming holidays and been thinking a lot on what to stock it with. It will be only a fish and live rock tank so no worries with reef compatibility and i don't plan on getting any kind of crustacean... except for maybe a starfish? I haven't done a lot of research on them though so that's just a maybe.
I'm also not sure about the "rules" of stocking. Is it still a gallon per inch of fish? I can't seem to find any kind of general consensus on the matter.
One fish that i really wanted to get also was the longfin bannerfish (heniochus acuminatus, black and white heniochus butterfly fish) except half the sites I've been to say that a minimum of 50 gallons is required, while the other half say something ridiculously different like 100 gallons. I only wanted to get one of them though.
I was also interested in getting a pair of Banggai Cardinalfish, the very cliche pair of clownfish (false ocellaris) and maybe a couple of firefish?
What do you guys think?
any other recommendations?

 

[SkiFletch]

I always suggest them, but wrasses would look great

 

[kpris]

Thanks SkiFletch =) I thought of them as well and still am... just there's so many of them! XP I'll want to get them all. They seem like the kind of fish that would look great in huge schools and getting just one or two oddballs would be kind of weird and unsatisfying. =/

Anyone have any idea if it would be possible to get that butterfly fish? I read somewhere else that a rough way of telling would be that the fish cannot be bigger than 3/4 of the smallest open space. As in because my tank would be 20" wide, assuming that 5" of that is covered by live rock, the fish can't exceed 10".

I'm now thinking something like this, max sizes are rough and taking into consideration this isn't a massive tank.
longfin bannerfish (max 9") x 1
B&W false ocellaris clownfish (max 3.5") X 2
banggai cardinal Fish (max 3") X 1
firefish goby (max 2.5") X 2
white striped skunk cleaner shrimp x 1
nassarius snail x 1
Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crab x 1

thats 24 inches of fish max in a 53 gallon tank and a little clean up crew. Is that too much? or could i fit more?

 

[ben1987]

your going to need more cabs and snails than that. I have a 3' tank and have 15 snails and 9 crabs at the minute!

i reckon that might be a bit small for a banner fish swel. not 100% sure though

 

[kpris]

Whoa! okay o_o
lots more crustacean thingys; check.
I read somewhere that they get a bit territorial though. How does that work then? Any recommendations on which particular types of crabs/snails go well together?