I think I figured out the length of the fading issue... There isn't enough memory to handle all of the fading.
in tlc_fades.h
#define TLC_FADE_BUFFER_LENGTH 24
I changed it to
#define TLC_FADE_BUFFER_LENGTH 64
and the steps of the fades went up and occurs a few seconds longer but alas I can't pump up the buffer_length any higher without crashing the board. Oh well, it was a nice idea 