Alexfevery,
I, for one, can honestly say that I don't find any saltwater tank to be 'ugly' and to be honest, I have recently started to really love the smaller fish that are available to us in the hobby, so this would be one chance for me to admit that size doesn't really matter. I am also sure that your plans are going to be great once they are realized. Any chance that you can give us some insight into what those plans might be?
Also, and I hope that I am not being too bold by giving out my opinions and/or suggestions, but since it sounds as if you are not in a huge rush or have some time on your hands regarding your 55 gallon tank (or even the 30 maybe), have you considered taking advantage of that by starting to add some base rock so that you can cure it until it is live rock (LR)? My reasoning for suggesting that is because buying live rock which is already cured is not only very expensive, but now that I am a bit more experienced in the hobby, I have come to the conclusion that buying cured LR is a bit risky because any number of things could happen in which it has a prolonged stay out of water during transport, which in theory, could make it much less valuable in relation to what you paid for it. Besides, base rock is much cheaper, never has any die off, and doesn't come with the risk that undesirable hitchhikers such as Ich, mantis shrimp, or problematic snails/anemones...just to name a few...wind up in your tank. Granted, there are cons to base rock as well, but it seems as though they are mostly centered on the time it takes to cure it, but in your case that may not be a concern at all. Again, this is just a suggestion and since I obviously don't know if you already thought of this, but I figured I would bring it up just in case you haven't.
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in a majority of sw tanks Ive seen, their is a green algae grow form, is there a purpose for this or what?
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Hmmm, to be honest, I am not really sure what you might be seeing or thinking of, but in reality, algae is a fact of life in any aquarium. However, in saltwater tanks, some hobbyists grow macroalgae, which is just a more fancy term for saying saltwater plants (technically, freshwater plants can be called the same as well) and they are used because they can help reduce nitrates, among other undesirable nutrients, as well as growing them for use as food, both directly and indirectly...for example, an indirect food source might be using macroalgae as a place for copepods to live and reproduce within so that fish like my mandarin dragonettes have them as a source of food.
Too add to that, while I dont have any real scientific or reliable data to support observation of mine, it seems as though algae is much more abundant in SW tanks versus FW tanks. I believe that this is due to a couple reasons; a couple examples might be that the lighting over SW tanks is usually much stronger/effective than what we typically place over a FW tank, and/or salt mixes and saltwater in general are full of trace elements that might also benifit algae to some extent.
Obviously I am not covering the topic entirely, and I am certainly not the resident expert on SW tank (by far) but hopefully I am at least somewhat close to understanding what you are referring to.
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I also ditched the fake plants
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Hey Tbx! I gotta be honest with you and admit that at one LFS which, because it is sort of far away so I don't go there often, they have a few SW tanks which are set up to look almost exactly like any one of us might set up a freshwater tank with similar decor and even fake plants...and I have went out of my way on a couple occasions just to go there and look at them because they are so interesting. In fact, I am pretty sure that at least a few customers have probably assumed that those tanks were freshwater and not saltwater because, unless you can ID saltwater fish, you simply cannot tell.
Don't get me wrong though, I am not saying that I think you should keep or put the fake plants back in your tank but rather, just relaying that story because your comments reminded me of that store.
