I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the cause was AEFW. If it is bleaching from the base up, that is sort of weird as most temp induced bleaching doesn't necessarily come from the bottom up. but I have seen AEFW move from the base up, but mostly from the the crevices of the branches.
If it is STN from the base that eventually leads to some bleaching of the rest of the coral. That is actually commonly seen from flow problems around the coral. Unfortunately it is one of those symptoms that shows itself when things have hit a critical mass for the coral and many times the coral will not recover, but not always.
In all honesty, sometime a pic of the coral in the tank is helpful, many times there are reasons that the coral goes that have to do with proximity to other corals that you might not notice until something starts to go wrong.
No offence taken Bill! :lol: