Contrary to what others are saying, it can be done for under 500.00. The key to accomplishing that, Find a local reef club, and buy used. club members will generally sell off their recently upgraded equipment at a decent price, and where the people are local, and involved in a group, you'll see more honesty in reports of the conditions of things.
As I sit here typing this, I am looking at a 29g LPS dominated reef.
29g tank, --------------------------------$20 (used)
Coralife PC lighting, --------------------$50 (used)
Coralife Skimmer, ----------------------$50 (used)
50lbs LR, + fish, corals & inverts-------$75 (used)
U tube overflow -------------------------$10 (used)
20g tank for sump, ---------------------$15 (used)
Sheet Acrylic for sump, ----------------$40 (new)
1 tube LocTite superglue gel------------$3 (new)
2 tubes aquarium silicone, -------------$5 (new)
Misc plumbing parts --------------------$40 (new)
1 bag of aragonite sand----------------$30 (new)
500 gph pond pump --------------------$50 (new)
100 w heater ----------------------------$10 (used)
45 gallons R/O water--------------------$15 (new)
Reef Crystals 160 gallon mix-----------$35 (new)
Total--------------------------------------$448.00
See, it can be done. In my case, the R/o water, overflow and 20g tank were donated, and I already had the 29g tank, Sand, and heater. And the reef salt was bought on the club discount for $30. So that was a savings of $110