Green Plating Montipora - blackish in the middle

[Seagars]

So as you can see from the picture i have some balding int he middle of this green plating coral. the ends where it is growing is a beautiful apple green. what is the issue with it and can it be fixed?

 

[vette.tech]

Maybe because there's a small hermit village in the middle

 

[Seagars]

Nothing?

 

[shibby1]

Maybe the bright green you think the whole coral should be is just new growth and that darker green is actual color. Has it always been like that?

 

[listen2bob]

Is there tissue and polyps in the center? Or is it dead in the middle?

 

[Seagars]

sorry, not sure.

 

[LoJack]

I'd point to flow. It looks like algae is starting to form on the centre. And there must be die off, because hermits are there picking at it, which usually means a bit of dead tissue.

Is everything else in the tank in good shape? Whats your flow situation like? Plating Monti's really like high flow in my experience.

 

[Seagars]

flow is good, but probably not direct to it. i have a red sea 650s which 5 pumps.
i will change the direction for one of the pumps and see what happens.
can it recover or is the center part dead?

 

[rogergolf66]

Center looks dead to me. Any temp, or alk swings in past 3 week? How r the rest of the sps?

 

[Uncle Luke]

I would frag the live pieces and chuck the dead parts.

 

[Seagars]

everything else in good shape but did have some calk issues.