A quick example of why White Balance is so important... what a reef tank looks like to your camera vs what it looks like color corrected. The best way to achieve this is if you have a camera that can shoot RAW, and use post processing software like Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture One, etc. to get the white balance right. I was able to use the white balance Eye Dropper tool in Capture One to select something close to pure white (in the sand) and the colors just snapped into place.
Before:
After:
I made no other changes to the image for this example aside from white balance.
Before:
After:
I made no other changes to the image for this example aside from white balance.