Is my acro ok?
 

I was fragging my acro colony today and notice that its base has turned brown. I believe it might be due to it not receiving direct light. Will the brown spread to the rest of my acro? Or will it slowly heal? I know I'm still a noob lol

First answer would yes light. But possible po4 also.




Try switching to halides jk;)

Id say not getting direct light due to overshadows of the top growth. Not ganna spread unless your coral shadow spreads.

Oops forgot to post a pic. Ya the colony bends at the base causing no direct light. Here's a pic of it out of the tank. http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...psfe9aa84a.jpg

Are you referring to the very bottom portion of the coral, from the pic looks about the lowest half inch where it attaches to the rock?

If so, that's not brown, that's just dead. The tissue has receded up from the base. Is the coral growing at the tips? It's possible for it to recover, but tissue recession like that is usually caused by something that irritates the coral near where it attaches to the rock, which could be a) not enough light, though IME the tissue just gets really dark and doesn't recede like that for that reason alone b) something on the rock is annoying to coral. Certain kinds of algae can do that as well if they grow around the base. Aiptasia can do that to a coral as well.

Generally if the coral is in good health it should recover assuming you can isolate what is causing the tissue recession and remedy it.

What are you parameters?

I should add, have you ever checked for acropora eating flatworms? The one coral in my tank that was affected by them did exactly that at the base before I figured out what was going on.

Overall, that coral looks like it's in pretty rough shape. Got a pic of it in the water? Maybe it will look better, but the tips of most of the corallites look bad..

Here's a pic of it in water. Looks like its doing nice and growing well.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5f988157.jpg

What should I do about the receeding?

How do I check for the flatworm? Should I just put the whole colony in Revive coral dip?

Ok, that looks better :)

If it were me, I'd cut the bottom dead area off, re-mount it with some epoxy and hope it encrusts again.