Akumanohi, be patient and slowly stock up your tank. Patience is important in this hobby and since you are still pretty new to this hobby, i suggest that you start off with fishes that are easier to keep.
On the amount of fishes that you can keep in your 3ft tank, it was suggested in a book i read that for the 1st 6 mths of ur tank, stick to 1" of fish per 4 gallons of water. After 6 months as ur tank become more mature, u can keep up to 1" of fish per 2 gallons of water. Of course this suggested level could only be vaild if you are able to mantain an adequate water parameter in your tank. Anyway, if you are keeping a reef tank, better not have too many fishes as it would be difficult to mantain the nitrate level if so.