Troubles keeping corals..... Please Help

[stoy]

I have a tank that has been established for a few years and I am now trying to make it a reef. The problem I am having is I have had button polyps which have been only partially opened or closed for over a year. I also have mushrooms which are always small(half opened) and sometimes get a hazy white color. I will list my equip/inhabitants/additives below. Is it my Bio Load or Equip or just stupidity? I just need help as I am very quickly getting discouraged and may just copper it and go back to FO.
Equipment-
Column 56 Tank 30 x 18 x 24
Filstar XP3
Seaclone Skimmer
4 x 65 watt PC Fixture 2 actinic 2 6500K
1 Power Sweep 280 powerhead
2 inches live sand
100lbs+ Live Rock
1 Marineland Heater - Kinda Old
Critters-
20 Turbo Snails
2 Nassarius Snails
10 Blue Leg Hermits
2 Sally Lightfoot
2 Emerald Crabs
1 Purple Urchin
1 Flame Angel
1 Pygmy Lion
1 Gold Stripe Maroon Clown
1 Velvet Damsel
1 Convict Damsel
1 Flame Hawk
3 Reef Chromis
1 BiColor Blenny
1 Sm. Snowflake Eel
Additives-
Purple Up
Reef Success
Chromium Complex
Reef Builder

 

[trigger11]

I am no expert but it seems to me the lighting is going to have a large part to play with your situation. I have 65w 50/50 at 10,000k and the corals I have seem to live ok. While I can see they are living ok I can also tell that if I had more light they would grow faster.

Water flow seems like it might be low to me. (I could be wrong though)
Out of curiosity, in which situations are you dosing with additives?

 

[dragonladylea]

60 gal column? what is the depth of this tank? I am going to venture that your lighting and water flow both need to be increased and I would stop adding any kind of additives. What are your water parameters??

 

[kelly]

I am not sure what a Column 60 Tank is, but if it is a 60 gallon tank, it may be bio load, I count 11 fish in this tank. What are the nitrates, nitrates, ammonia, ph and temp? What are the size of the fish, how often are they fed?
The lighting should be ok for the button polyps and mushrooms.
Kelly

 

[stoy]

The aquarium is 30 x 18 x 24. The params I will have to test tommorow. I know last week my PH was a touch low. Nitrates were a touch high. Everything else was Kosher.

 

[stoy]

Originally Posted by Kelly
I am not sure what a Column 60 Tank is, but if it is a 60 gallon tank, it may be bio load, I count 11 fish in this tank. What are the nitrates, nitrates, ammonia, ph and temp? What are the size of the fish, how often are they fed?
The lighting should be ok for the button polyps and mushrooms.
Kelly
Everything is 1/2 to 1" except for snowflake which is 6 inches. Nitrites and amonia are perfect and temp is 78