there is a ciclid in there... but it's not a ciclid tank. i actually aquired him for a friend that wa breaking his tank down. i didn't want him in my tank and i put him in a 10 gallon unheated, unlit, unfiltered tank with a big chunk of java moss. He lived for months, and one day i figured what the hell, see what happens, and moved him to the big tank. than was about 6 or 7 years ago now. The bulk of the population are barbs, a variety of tetras, one good size red tailed black shark, a rainbow or two, a few mollies, and some other misc fish. when i notice the population decreasing i usually get a dozen or so serbae or some other tetra and dump them in just to keep moving things in there.
In this tanks previous incarnation, it was lit by 2 "shoplight" fixtures, with a total of 4 48" NO bulbs i got from home depot, 2 "daylight" and 2 "plant and aquarium"
I've kept planted tanks for years and years, and i'm a firm believer in natural algae control methods. the higher order plants out compete the algae for nutrients, and a couple of algea eating inhabitants take care of what's left. My upkeep routine is literally to wipe scrape the glass maybe once a month, and a 5 gallon water change 3x a year tops. the current light is a shoplight that i squeezed a VHO balast from hellolights into, and for bulbs have coralife VHO trichromatics in.