About 3 weeks old now. I used sand, rock, and frags from my established tanks and had no cycle. I wanted to keep this setup as simple as possible so i used readily availible components. Marina 1.87L Betta tank ($6), Elite Mini powerfilter ($13), Coralife 10W 50/50 bulb ($20), and a $10 desk lamp.
Inhabitants so far:
-2 sexy shrimp
-1 blue leg hermit
-1 nassarius snail
-xenia
-zoos
-green hairy shroom
-striped shroom
-frogspawn
-green star polyps
all comments and criticism appreciated!