a channel costs the onchain transaction fee and you want to open it once and have it as long as possible. 
so better choose a higher amount because you don't want to open soon again another channel because the one lacks capacity.  

 Gotcha, thanks for the help. So I can open an incoming channel with 1m sats regardless of what is in my Alby account if I choose to use that? 

If I want an outbound channel I need to set that up manually and ideally have it at 250k minimum?

Just want to double check, first time trying to run a lightning node! 

 If you want outbound capacity you need to put some money in. 
So you can also just send a few sats in through that first channel you get. You don't need to specifically open a new channel. 

You start, Alby Hub by default helps you to open a channel to receive. Then you can receive payments of any amount and that you then can spend.  

 Great, that makes sense, thanks for your help and patience!