How to take pics w/rebel xt

[jtarmitage]

I've got a rebel xt with the 100mm macro lens. My tank has a 20k 250 mh and 4 actinic vho suppl. You may spot the problem already, but I cannot figure out how to get the colors I see in the tank to show up in the pics without being completely washed out and blue. I'm a novice to photography, and am plodding through the manual to little avail. Any advice on what settings to use would be appreciated, and I can look up how to actually adjust to those settings.
Thanks in advance,
Jeremy

 

[wh1te]

Copy of my post in the MARS Forums

What I would suggest is learning how to manually set the white balance and then put a white peice of pvc in your tank and adjust the white balance until that appears white. Then the rest of your colors should be fairly accurate.

 

[jtarmitage]

wh1te- as mentiones on MARS board, thanks. Behold the difference when you learn to use the proper settings:

Before and After:

 

[chk4tix]

wow, that makes a big difference. I just need to figure out how to do that with my camera