Wow very ambitious for a newbie. BUT I LIKE. *lol* Mostly coz I want to do one for myself, but never had the time or energy.
My advice to you is, if you want to set it up properly... have some sorta blueprint first. Like decide on the design ya want, draw it on a piece of paper. Rough layouts. General idea of what kinda flora and fauna. The specs... etc. Don't just jump into buying stuff before ya do that, or you'll just be wasting time and money. For huge tanks I feel it's important to have the right equipment such as lighting, filtration, CO2...etc. So you'll need to list it all down.
THEN when you've got the right equipment and layout plans, you can start purchasing the substrate, rocks, wood, flora and lastly fauna. Probably in that order.
Rocks wise, besides shape and colour, don't forget to make sure they are suitable for the fauna you intend to have. So things like pH and chemistry are important too. Don't just buy them coz they are pretty.
If you want relatively cheaper fish and plants, get them directly from the farms. Like Qian Hu in CCK. If you make friends with ya LFS and tell them ya're doing a HUGE project and are gonna buy stuff in bulk, they might be willing to throw in discounts. You can try this forum for some stuff too. Esp from people, who for one reason or another, are giving up the hobby. But my advice would be not to just take all the free stuff. Take what you need, and pass it on.
Hope that helps. I'd love it if you could share the whole process with us. I'd love to help with the set up. Esp if ya're around the Bt Panjang area. HAHA. I'm a noob myself. So maybe the word isn't so much "help" as much as "kay poh".
ALL THE BEST!!!
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