first corals

your tank may just be too new for them. leathers can do great in some tanks and just do crappy in others that are exactly the same. what kind of lights do you have. sorry if you posted it already
 
ohh thats your problem

that is only 2.65w per gallon of light you do not have enough light to keep them alive you will be lucky to keep mushroom corals alive and they are a low light coral you need at least 4-5watts per gallon for low light corals
 
that pisses me off!!!! I spent 25 bucks on those hings cause at the LFS they told me lights didn't really matter. That they have there lights off all weekend long and it doesn't effect them. Sorry I blew up it isjust irratating. And before anyone says anything about it only being 25 bucks you must realize I am on a VERY small budget with this thing.
 
oh thats fine they may have there lights off all weekend thats just a couple days. i cannot beleive they told you that that is a shitty lfs. coral needs light for them to live and a lot of it. i got my lights from catalina aquariums for 400 but it is 8 54w bulbs it would work great for you 80 but again i understand you are on a small budget.
look into a nova extreme pro lights also they are cheaper and will do the trick if there is enough bulbs in them.

aquatraders.com has cheap lights also

bulkreefsupply has 8 bulb tek lights for cheap also

but no matter any light that is gooing to keep your coral alive is going to cost you a few hundred at least

i hope all this helps.
 
the tank and original water are several years old. I just got the tank a few months ago and used all of the original water.

Coralife 48" - 4 x 65 Watt - (Straight Pin)

are the lights I have except they only have 2 not 4. Then I also have 2 4 foot shop lights

When you say they have 2 not 4. If that means 2 of the sockets are open then go buy some bulbs quick and put those corals at the top of the tank right under the lights :)

if the fixture only holds 2 then you might want to start shopping around for new lights xD
And find a new home for those leathers or they prolly won't make it :/

Fish don't need much light but corals def do.
 
Also, lights start losing their output power after only about 6 months in an aquarium. If those lights were used for years b4 you they might not have much output power left in them either.

PS. When I set up my tank I only had shop lights on top of my 55g and the only thing my tank was growing was brown diatoms! After I got my new lighting I was extremely impressed and everything went uphill from there.

When your looking for lights go for the 3-5 watts per gallon rule and I would recommend 50/50 20,00k Actnic Lights and between 10,000k-14,000k Daylights.

Here is a good Article to explain the lighting and I recommend reading it before purchasing anything:
The Reef System Wattage Rule of Thumb Formula

I linked you to, imo, the most important page but read the whole article and I think there are like 4 related articles that sometimes are/aren't so easy to navigate to. I believe that link is in Article 2/4.
 
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