Taking Photos?

+1 for this one! I'm going to try the milk jug idea, never heard that one before.

 

If your camera allows you to do a custom white balance, go for it. After a few times you'll never go back to common camera defaults.

 

Yeah, tungsten makes your tank look really dark and moody but with the flash throught the milk jug brings out the yellow and brightness, thats how I did my angel. This exact technique is used in Sports Illustrated!

There are also small popup flash softboxes for like 10 bucks on adorama.com like these:
OMF1 Sto-Fen Omni-Flip OM-F1 for Digital SLR Camera Pop-Up Flashes
STR111 Interfit Photographic Small On Camera Diffuser for Cameras with a Shoe Mount Flash.
the one I use:
LQ051D Lumiquest Soft Screen, a Diffusion Sheet for On-Camera Pop-up Flashes.

 

I guess it makes a difference if you are going for affect or likeness.... I go for likeness.

 

Like others also said
No flash IME
Room lights off
Clean glass, inside and out
Manual Focus
Use a tripod
Turn off all powerheads/pumps

Here are some of my best shots

 

im using a cheap-o' camera, i paid $1.79 for it....its full value is 79.99 plus tax....i won it, just had to pay for shipping.....its a lumix (panasonic) DC Vario 1:2.8-5.9/5.5-22 ASPH with a 4x optical zoom.....tons of different settings....its a 10.1 MP


thanks a ton for all these tips, taken a few good ones but not many, im gonna get a fewmore before i post some......as for the GIMP program, found a spot to download it but i think it messed up somewhere because i cant find it on my pc anywhere.....

 

these are the main settings i can change on my camera

flash
burst
white balance
auto scene
normal pic
scene mode-22 settings to choose from
sensitivity
color mode

 

IME, the most important thing that no one ever seems to mention is keeping the lens perpendicular to the glass. cameras have a hard time focusing through the tank glass at an angle.

 

I never use auto-focus when taking pics of the tank. Use manual focus and get it just right.