I know this is only a post, and not the contents of your brain...so I'm not trying to sell you short on Post #5!!
But just to say it...
You're way, way, way (way, way, way) ahead of yourself worrying about carbon dosing your very first reef tank at the stage you're on.
Carbon dosing is for overstocked tanks with nitrate issues. (Yes people try to use if for other purposes, but it has little other effect than reducing nitrates.)
There are also poorly-understood side-effects to carbon dosing that affect the hardiness of stony corals. For example, while carbon dosing you no longer have the ability to choose to keep a higher alkalinity level.
Keeping alkalinity somewhat elevated is advantageous in some very common scenarios - particularly for a newbie.
Not only that, but planning to overstock your tank (which is more or less what planning to carbon dose is) is unwise....it'll be fun while you're in BUY MODE, but as soon as the tank starts to mature, you'll be in for it. Fun will be over, algae, diatoms, cyano, etc will start kicking in. Etc.
Don't go that route!
- Start small.
- Stock slowly.
- Get to know every single piece of livestock you add for a month or even a few months before adding anything else.
- Make sure the tank bioload is slanted to corals and inverts, not fish, if you ultimately plan for a large bioload.
Having a moderate to small bioload (especially fish) is the #1 thing you can do as a favor to yourself in keeping the tank strong, healthy and easy to maintain!
Also, going slow (as I described) let's you make the mistakes you are surely going to make....and learn from them.....without killing (or damaging) a whole tank full of (mostly wild) animals.
Going slow is difficult since it requires some patience, and there are very few examples of people to follow who do it.... but it's by far the best way to go.
Case in point: Look how long it took for
@Paul B 's tank to look like it does now!!!!
