New to Saltwater - So Many Questions!

[River]

I hope I've got this in the right place!

I am in the process of starting my first saltwater tank. I have done all sorts of freshwater for the last ten years or so and I've been considering trying my hand at saltwater for a while, but I finally decided to do it a few months ago.

My set up;

-26 gallon bowfront
-Tunze Comline DOC Skimmer 9001
-Tunze Turbelle nanostream 6020
-Fluval Sea LED light strip (not fancy, I know)
-25lbs base rock (I may add a bit more)
-1.5-2 inches of sand
-C3 fluval HOB filter

I did not want to go live. I have a thing about segmented worms and wormy things with legs? It's weird, yeah, but I can't even handle PICTURES of bristleworms, so I'm starting off completely dead. The horror stories of people finding 5+ foot worms in their tanks definitely put the last nail in that coffin, no matter how rare it might be.

The tank has been cycling for about 3 weeks now. The levels as of yesterday were;

Ammonia - none to minimal. I can't quite tell if there is any colour to the solution or if it's just the light. I'll do another test in the morning and look at it outside where my living room lights won't confuse me.
Nitrite - 2ppm (down from 3 a couple days before, so it's going down now)
Nitrate - 50ppm
PH - 7.7

I know my PH is too low... Baking soda still the best solution? Or is there a better way? Will the PH have any effect on my cycle or can I wait to fix that until after it finishes and I do the water change?

When the time comes to start adding some life to it, what should I start with? I was thinking one or two nassarius snails to help stir my sand bed as well and one or two cerith snails? Would I be able to add a shrimp at the same time? I really like fire shrimp. Would one of those be okay to add early on, or should I wait until the tank is a little older? I know freshwater shrimp can be really finicky, does the same hold true for saltwater?

As for fish, I'm looking to start with a couple occelaris clowns. Then maybe some combination of a yellow clown goby, a tailspot blenny, and a firefish. Is hoping I can do them all too much? I know stocking rules for saltwater are different, but I'm not really sure how those rules work yet.

Thank you ahead of time for any help or advice you all might offer!