Solar Flare Millepora Acropora – Aquacultured Frag, Cut to Order

Solar Flare Millepora is Acropora millepora, sold under the trade name Solar Flare. Millepora grows short, thick branches covered in crowded, scale-like corallites, and it extends its polyps heavily during the day, which gives the colony a fuzzy look when it is happy. The photo shows the colony in our Key West system that your frag is cut from, shot under our reef lighting, so expect the color to shift with your spectrum.

What you get

One frag about 3/4 to 1 inch, cut to order from the colony in the photo and mounted on a plug. Pick your timing at checkout:

• Fresh cut: cut and shipped on the next Tuesday or Wednesday ship day.
• Grow-out: cut now and held about 3 weeks so the base encrusts onto the plug, then shipped.

Same price either way. A new frag will not have the branch structure of the colony in the photo. That comes with growth.

What to expect when it arrives

Acropora ships with polyps fully retracted and the color noticeably duller than the listing photograph. Both are normal. Float the sealed bag 15 minutes, drip acclimate 45 minutes, and dip the frag before it goes anywhere near your display. Red bugs and acro-eating flatworms arrive on frags from every source, including ours, and a dip plus a look at the plug underside is the cheapest insurance in the hobby.

Light acclimation, which is where the money is lost

Do not place a new Acropora frag under full intensity. Start it low on the rockwork for the first week and raise it in stages across three to four weeks. Bleaching from a sudden light jump does not appear for several days, and by the time you see pale tissue the damage is finished. Nearly every dead acro frag in this hobby was killed in its first two weeks by light, not by water chemistry.

Polyp extension usually returns within three to seven days. A frag that has not extended in ten days is worth investigating; one that has not extended in three is simply settling.

Stability over numbers

Alkalinity drift kills more Acropora than any single parameter being wrong. A tank holding 8.5 dKH steady grows acro better than one swinging between 7.5 and 9.5 chasing a target. If you dose, dose continuously rather than in one daily slug. Sudden alkalinity movement burns tips within hours.

Growth and fragging

Expect visible encrusting onto the plug within four to six weeks — that is the first reliable sign the frag has accepted its spot. Branch extension follows. Give a frag two to three months before judging color, because Acropora colors up to its light over weeks and the first two weeks tells you nothing useful.

Frag with bone cutters, cut in the morning, and glue the cutting rather than letting it tumble.

Compatibility

Acropora has no meaningful defense against LPS sweepers. Keep it well clear of Euphyllia, chalices and brains. It is also the first coral to suffer when anything else in the tank goes wrong, which makes it an excellent early warning system and an expensive one.