Reef crystals is not needed if you dont want, most use standard IO salt you won't have a big calcium alk demand at the start specially in a 12g
Phosphates are primarily introduced by feeding and specially overfeeding and in a small tank this will be your enemy also some leach from rocks or sand\but it isn't added in your salt
As for the GFO and Carbon
Test your phosphates and it will tell you if you need gfo or not ( wc will help with p04 )
And Im an advocate for carbon have ran it in all my tanks others dont ( helps take out organics and the "yellowing" agents in the water and generally gives you clear water, But it is by no means necessary
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Current tank---125 gallon mixed reef 60 gallon sump, Reef octopus nw200 skimmer, Rapid LEDs, Maxspec gyre, Mp10s, Fuge, Biweekly 20% WC, QT everything
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