Starting for the first time

[jws444]

I'd suggest to take your time and enjoy this time. The excitement of an empty tank about to be filled with water is cool moment because you're only limited by your imagination.

Now, to lay down the heavy hand....
Buying corals (even beginner softies) when your tank is still dry is taking a bit of a leap of faith. IMO, you still have lots of time to enjoy and learn with a tank of bare water. You'll see the mini cycles of algae and the water paramters change. You'll have time to figure out flow and even drain the tank to drill it because you've changed your mind. As well as extra time for adding rock and aquascaping to perfection. All these little things will give you intimate knowledge and hindsight for any future problem solving. It's just really hard to do these things with livestock in the tank. Any move you do will affect them by the stress of moving them, or even having your hand in there more than you should. I remember when my tank was new, my hand was in my tank almost daily!

In the end, i think you'll do fine with all your reading. Just enjoy this moment because it only comes once!