The whole purpose for me creating an account

I am newish to the hobby, e.g i have done exponentially more research than i have gotten hands on in the hobby. I recently quit a very expensive addiction, and am finding aquarium keeping to be much more satisfying. So long story short I am planing long term (e.g ~3 years out) a massive project on a scale to par with some of the more incredible projects seen here and other hobby forums. Essentially I intend to custom build a long term home around this project. I am looking for advice from others who have experience with large custom projects; good manufacturers to work with, individual preferences, and things that they would have done differently, done better, etc.