Very nice set up you are planning to have, I love the deep demension tanks. It's gonna open so much aquascaping posibilties that a narrow tank just can't match.
As far as equipment goes I made more mistakes on cheaper under rated stuff that I can count so please don't waste any money on cheap stuff, you will end up replacing it in the very near future anyways.
For me a quality skimmer is on the top of the list, it is the beating heart of mine entire system. I have a BBK supermarin 250 and I just love it. I went from coralife to hydor to vertex to bbk mini and finally arriving at the current model. If I would've just went to my current model now I would've saved couple of thousands of dollars.
Once the skimmer is picked then lighting and water movement, Led is the future... New models almost arrive daily but this is where it gets tricky. I have AI sols and they do wonders on my tank, but they are not "full spectrum". I would wait for the newer models to come out before making any purchases.
I use Tunze 6105 for water movement due there reliabilty and low noise factor. It is a bit unsightful to have a largerer power head in the tank but I rather see the power head then to hear it. It also comes with 2 different gates for wide or narrow flow.
Apex controller has a really tough instruction booklet to understand, well not as bad as profilux but still bad. There is an unofficial guide online you can get and it explains everything in details which I highly recommand you to have a look.
Live stock is totally up to you, I love sps for corals, wrasses and tangs for fishes. I think you can keep some tangs but keep it to a few smaller sizes ones like yellow or purple or maybe a powder brown. Once those tangs starts to grow, they can become waste stations. I have a 6 inch naso tang that has a lot more to grow and the waste it produces is equivalent to 10 or more wrasses. In the recent month I started to really get into wrasses, I swear once you get in you just can't get out. Amazing colors and ample amount of choices.
Anyways looking forward for the build. Good luck and have fun!
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