Questions - Need some input

Here are some recent pics of some of my corals. My tank is mostly LPS with a couple of SPS, leathers, shrooms and zoo's

here's a lobo


here's the fungia, which has really gotten fat




some pink/green hammers




the orange monti cap, which measures about a foot across.


...

My wife received this gift from her parents last year (or the year before), a Nikon D60.

I figured i would put it to good use and have been using these sites,

http://www.melevsreef.com/take_great_pictures.html
http://www.ximinasphotography.com/lessons/

to try and "learn" photography (i use the term "learn" loosely because thus far have had mixed results).

There are a million different settings and combination of settings ...

Prologue

I have been at this hobby for the past 8 years (coming up). I have had sucess to varying degrees, which magically corolate with overall interest (aka: Husbandry).

I must admit I am cheapskate (to a certain degree). As well as an advocate for "why pay for something that I can do myself?"

I have a 125 gallon tank with 55 gallon sump, that is filled two thirds for about 160 gallon total volume. I have a Aqua C EV-180 protein skimmer. For ...