Hey dgasmd,
long answer ahead, short at end of post ;-)
well, i indirectly bought the skimmer and the red dragon pumps from Klaus's company.
The german reef-scene is not that big (Germany is not that big also ;-).
Michael, who was a big help, knows Klaus well (they write in the same German forum
and talk about their projects there).
I've had advice and active help from Michael, a friend of mine, who runs "Mrutzeks Meeresaquaristik" a well known LFS and Onlineshop in the German scene.
I of course paid him for his great work and bought most of the equipment from him.
He placed the pipes, i glued part of them, he connected ext. pumps and returnpump.
We together did 80% of the LR-work you can see in the actual reef initialy.
Of course, running a company he's had experience and it wouldn't have been as good
if I would have done it on my own.
And of course, if you receive 700 pound precycled LR, its not precycled anymore, if you have drilled, sorted and placed it in the tank all on your own... (It took about 10-12 hours with us 2).
Claude Schumacher you might know from his company Faunamarin, also a well known person in the German reef-scene, also gave me advice and did some of the planning regarding the tank itself.
The tank itself was glued in its current position by Ralf Geis, the guy who usually does that for Claude.
I paid a company to cut the hole in the wall and bring the steel joints in it to absorb the
rest of the house, they helped also sanyfie the rest of the house during this period.
It was another company which built the high-grade stainless steel stand and lighthood because i don't know how to work with that material, and another company which glued the multiplex birch above the stand.
I paid a carpenter for doing the cladding around the tank.
The split-level aircon was installed by the aircon company.
An electrician installed the fuses, powerlines. If u do that on your own, in Germany, no insurance will pay if your house burns down.
Well, the equipment was installed by myself, including room in the cellar etc.
20% of the pipes were installed, 60% glued by myself
LR see above
I did all connected to the livings in this tank
My previous tanks i did completely on my own, including glueing the glas.
So lets call this something like teamwork? co-operation?
Sorry for getting this long with my answer,
but i thought i'd have to give credits to the ones who gave me advice and did work for me.
The short answer would be:
Doing all with my previous tanks (up to 90 gal) totaly on my own (including glueing the glas),
I decided this time to get advice and active help.
I feared that building a 870 gal totaly on my own could be too much for a single person and also running it later, if its not thorough thought-out, would be way too much work.
I needed advice.
Additional I wanted a high class tank with things done in the best way possible.
In the past I had to learn, that I am not the best possible choice for each and every job to be done.
There are pros around ;-)
Hope that answers your question, and of course no problems on asking

.
best,
Ralf