Acropora Frag

This is a frag — a small, cut fragment taken from a larger Acropora parent colony, already beginning to encrust and extend its own branching structure. Buying a frag gives you a significant head start on a coral that would otherwise take months to reach the same tissue mass from a freshly settled recruit.

That said, it's worth saying plainly: Acropora is demanding SPS territory. These are small polyp stony corals that want strong stable lighting at the high end of the PAR range, vigorous multi-directional flow, and calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium maintained in a tight, consistent band. The margins are narrower than LPS — a parameter swing that a torch or hammer coral would shrug off can initiate tissue recession in an Acropora that looked perfect the day before. SPS corals telegraph stress through tissue recession starting at the base; by the time it's obvious from the top, significant damage has already occurred.

Get the parameters right and growth can be fast enough to notice week over week. Acropora is the coral that rewards a mature, proven system more than almost anything else in the hobby.

Scientific name: Acropora sp.
Origin: Indo-Pacific — high-energy outer reef crests and upper reef slopes with strong surge and intense light
Water parameters: Temp 76–82°F · Salinity 1.025–1.026 · pH 8.2–8.4 · Alkalinity 8–9.5 dKH · Calcium 400–450 ppm · Magnesium 1250–1350 ppm
Lighting: High — 200–400+ µmol PAR; upper third of tank
Flow: High, turbulent, multi-directional
Tank requirements: 50+ gal; mature system with stable proven parameters
Diet: Photosynthetic; stable trace element levels matter more than target feeding
Husbandry note: Acclimate new Acropora frags slowly to your tank's lighting by placing them lower initially and moving them up over 2–3 weeks. Light shock from an abrupt jump to high PAR causes more bleaching losses than almost any other single factor with this genus.