To Frag or Not to Frag?

[VR28man]

So, we've had an alkalinity problem (see separate thread) and this acro, which has not been doing well, has degraded.

I tentatively ID it as acropora pichoni, trade name tentatively ID'd as Yoda Acropora. If I'm correct, it's a deep water acro ("Protected reef slopes below 30 metres" according to corals of the world). I got it from @Leishman, and it seems to me he keeps the mother colony in decent light and moderate flow. And it's a nice, healthy, green.

I think I previously gave it too much light; kessil 50% spectrum and 100% light (300+par) for much of the day; first 0% color (blue) in the same spot, now only blue spectrum at maybe 40% the previous intensity (I guess 150-200par or so).

During that time, it grew some, but it turned white and started dieing in some parts. After the alkalinity disaster discussed above, about half of it is gone.

I am thinking of fragging the good half, after it recovers a bit. Any thoughts for/against?

eta: picture came out awful. The white part in the pic is actually fairly green when the Kessil is set to 0% color [in the picture it's set for 100% color because I still, clearly, have not mastered iphone aquarium photography] and alive, while the purple part is dead (overgrown with some kind of red algae]. I was going to not bother with the picture it since I don't have time now to try another iphone pic, but I thought it at least sort of shows what's going on. If you remember the caveat about the color.....

 

[KrisReef]

After it recovers, not before. It looks too weak to survive fragging at this point, at least according to what I think I am seeing in the photo.

I would probably blast it off with some water current to help remove the clinging layer of death that is around it.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

What am I looking at here?

 

[jda]

I would frag it too... after it has colored back up and healed a bit. I not frag it now unless it continues to have tissue necrosis.

 

[Leishman]

Mine is getting blasted with light and flow. It’s ~6” under 8x54w t5s.

The main colony died (yellow circle) but I managed to save a decent frag which I placed above the dead colony.

 

[VR28man]

Thanks folks. I'm going to wait at least a week before fragging it, hopefully it'll be greener.

What am I looking at here?

A bad picture taken by someone who doesn't know how to use an iphone for fish tank pics, showing a half dead acropora frag in the foreground. Originally it was all green like in @Leishman 's mother colony, now the living parts are white with only a few green spots.

Mine is getting blasted with light and flow. It’s ~6” under 8x54w t5s.

The main colony died (yellow circle) but I managed to save a decent frag which I placed above the dead colony.

Yeah I remember when I got it you said as much. I put it under a Kessil 360, 50% color (maybe 10,000k) at 350ish par for several months, and its color changed like this. I've changed the color temp to 0% (maximum blue on a kessil), and it was a bit better. But, I moved it now to maybe 150-200 par for a few days, and it looks like it's greener. My frag looks like it gets more flow than your mother colony, based on your videos , but I don't blast it with direct flow.

Well, again, I'll see how it goes for the next week or so.