I think you are on the right track with the reno ideas, losing a few feet of a room versus thousands of $$$ and time to do all the things you where thinking about.
I am not the one to ask about tank size that is a for sure but starting with a 65 gal, then a second 65 gal, up to a 155 gal bow front, moving to my 8' 165 gal and now finally putting a ton of effort on my 8' 300 gal once its all done and running I will be more then happy to stay with it for many yrs. But that doesn't mean that this is going to be my only tank.
