The guys are pretty much covering alot on the topic so I will just concentrate on a couple areas.

I currently use an 1,800 watt inverter and two 1,000 amp battery bank on my boat and this is a few things I have learned.  I'm not an electrical engineer and this is just what I have learned often the  hardway.

Although a deep cycle battery has a heck of alot better amp hours, they tend to sacrafice voltage for amperage, current.  A 10 volt alarm should give you maximum use of a deep cycle, however if you are powering 12vdc sensative electronics off the same battery sources it may create issues.  In this case, where I needed to maintain 12vdc, I have gotten better run times out of large cranking batteries than deep cycles.  Otherwise, powering motors, lights, and such the deep cycle is far superior to the cranking.  I guess I'm saying you should know what you plan to run off your system before you plan it.  

To maximize my run time between charges, I have found that the more I can run on AC the better for DC has alot of resistance in wires.  When running DC, the closer I can get the end use product to the battery source the longer the life.  Of course, alot of this has to do with optimizing wire diameter selection but is a good general rule of thumb.  

When using a self charging system on the battery bank, it will only charge to the lowest battery in the bank.  In other words if you have a 600 amp battery hooked up to a 1,000 amp you will only charge until the 600 amp is charged.  Match your batteries and the bigger the better.  I match not only amps but brands to maximize my run time between charges.  

The weakest link in the entire system is always the charging system.  It's a balancing act in regards to use versus cost vs time.  The higher the amp rating on the charging system the faster they recharge.  On the otherhand, the faster you recharge the lower the battery life before replacement.  The better the recharge the longer the use time.  

On a boat, it's fairly simple since use is typically only a couple days a week and a slower battery charge doesn't impact the application use that much.  My AC charger does an excellent job overnight but running off the altinator, I seem to never get back up to a full charge.  This becomes an issue when spending more than one night on my boat for I get a good 12 hours running time off my batteries from initial charge and then it drops to 8 hours off the motor charge.  I am considering a solar panel for submental charging during the day which is low useage time but by no means as a primary since it so subjective to sunlight availablity.  You tend to need more power when there is less sun.  

I know I posted a lot of generalities but I hope it helps.

Tj