Why is it so hard to get a clean shot?!

[JazzZero]

Well, ya i am not much of a photographer to start of with but i still use my dad's overly priced camera (NIKON D200 W/18-200 VR NIKON LENS) but im still unable to get a nice shot that you guys are able to get. When i take the shots i notice that its a little blurry and not sharp. Also the real colour is missing. Any ideas of how i can fix this?

Here a shot

 

[Phyl]

I can tell by the vantage point of the tank you've shot that you're not shooting straight into the tank (lens surface parallel to the tank glass). Also, you'll want to be as far away from those bowed corners as possible.

The 18-200 is not a macro lens and is therefore not designed for closeup shots of tank inhabitants. That's going to limit the types of shots that you're taking.

Proper white balance will help the colors some, but it looks like your a bit washed out.

What is that orange & white coral in the left corner? I'd never seen one of those until a couple weeks ago and the vendor didn't have an ID on it (or the relationship between the white and the orange which looked like sponge).

 

[JazzZero]

Thx for the help and its an austrailia sponge with polyps...i think its called a spider sponge justrarefish has one but they are hard to get to open they need low light, no redslime algae or any kind forming on it and they need to be feed alot!

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

You have a bowfront tank. You will never get your pictures pin-point sharp. Photography is by far the major downfall of these tanks. As far as colors go, read the manual that came with the camera. Look up "RAW".