This hobby is all about how much you want to put into it. My girlfriend and I have approx. $500 in two tanks so far. If I were starting I would get the walmart 10 gallon. With hood, lights and tank you are only looking at $30. One bag of flourite and you are looking at another $15. Light bio-load fish and you can get away with the $15 HOB water filter. Water test kit online would be another $20. Another $20 bucks for ferts. Start with a few easy plants, $3-5 a pop at my lfs. Trade/sell for more plants and fish. You can find your own driftwood and rocks, no need to buy that stuff.
Tank/Hood/Lights-$30
Flourite or equivelant-$15
HOB filter-$15
Water test kit-$20
Ferts-$20
Approx~$100
Plants/Fish~$15-$50
So for $115 to $150 you could have a fairly nice starter setup and work from there. Do your research and buy used and you could probably half that price to start. Of course the full blown ADA and pressurized CO2 will set you back $300-$600, but you don't want that for your starter tank. I just setup my 25G Tall tank for $330 including the stand and coralife lights I thought that was pretty inexpensive myself in this day and age of $10 movie tickets and $500 videogame consoles.
As for the OP, I think this looks very natural and I am quite impressed with the how aged the aquarium looks this early on. Is this a true ADA rimless tank or did you remove the rim yourself? I think this would really "pop" with a black background. Are you sure you have enough light? It just seems a little dark up front but that could just be the camera.