Sounds good. I was thinking along those lines. Definitely a blenny of some kind and a clown. I'd love to have 2 different clown types, but from what I understand they aren't likely to get along. Still thinking about the remaining choices. Luckily there's plenty of time - I have a feeling the tank will take its sweet time cycling.
You can get 2 different clowns, but they must be tank-bred or both closely related. For example, you could have 1 standard ocellaris clown and a black and white ocellaris clown, because they're both ocellaris clowns. You get what I mean? There's standard, blue stripe, black and white, naked, platinum, and more! I personally just like ocellaris clowns (the species listed above).
I'm on the fence about hermit crabs. They're fun to watch, but I don't want snails being killed. Does that realistically happen? I've been reading about the danger of keeping starfish in small tanks, but again, that may be textbook warnings, don't really know. Lots of people seem to have some luck with them. Definitely would like a healthy mix of snails.
This is a question that comes up a lot. Hermits are scavengers, like all crabs, and will eat what they can get. I chose very peaceful species, but if you're really on edge then just get blue leg hermits. There's been bad stories about red tips and the're more likely to eat snails.
For the star, I chose a safe species. Brittle and serpent stars are one of the few reef safe stars out for sale, as long as they ARE NOT GREEN OR YELLOW! These ones grow huge, are very fast, and catch fish and crabs and whatever they can get! Black ones, and red ones are OK though.
Bring 'em on! My dream fish is a mandarin. If I could only keep one fish, that would be it. Probably not going to happen in a small tank. Saw one in the LFS, and had to restrain myself :bounce1:. Maybe a year down the road, if I add a HOB fuge. Too early to think that far ahead.
I really wouldn't recommend a mandarin until you've had years of saltwater experience. They're one of the hardest fish to keep and require pods for feeding. I've also heard stories of them eating very small invertebrates (crabs, shrimp).
As for the other things, here you go. I forgot to recommend a cleaner shrimp, like skunk cleaner shrimp, fire/blood shrimp, and peppermint shrimp. Peppermints can resemble a bad coral eating shrimp though, the camel shrimp.
A blue tuxedo urchin would be neat, they stay small and eat algae.
A crinoid squat lobster would be awesome. They're not lobsters, crabs, shrimp or anything. Squat lobsters are their own type of crustacean. These ones only grow to about 2 inches and are very easy to care for.
And finally mole crabs! They're small little crabby things that sift your sand and are very cool! They only grow to an inch and a half.