Try to establish some sort of template for machines since you will be building a lot of machines that are just items/fluids/energy in and out, connected to interfaces, regulated by level emitters. Also use consistent coloring with your tanks and conduits, for example light blue = salt water/blue = water, orange = naphta, yellow = light fuel etc.

If you use only 16x cables and keep voltages to their own areas you won't have to worry about anything burning or exploding. 16x cables can actually accept power from any number of 16x CEFs due to a quirk with EU, so you can have a long line of machines on the same cable if you want.

Mark veins when you see them. Almost every type of vein is useful at some point. I suggest using the elemental symbol for the main element, for example Ag for silver/lead veins.

Peaceful-only is possible and very much enjoyable, although you will need to kill things occasionally for leather, feathers and much later meat for wetware circuits.

There are patched jars for GTCE and AE2 to improve lategame performance.

I strongly recommend adding CarryOn, mostly to enable quantum tanks to be moved. There are other similar mods but CarryOn worked best for me. Just don't use it on conduits or such.