How to tell if an acro is happy or not

I got my first SPS the other day, a light purplish acro. My question is, how do you tell if you have it in a good spot and that it's doing well. Occasionally I can see the tiny polyps start to come out, not quite sure how far they fully extend. I have it under T5s, specifics are in my sig, and it's getting some decent flow between my powerhead and return pump. Oh, and it's in the upper portion of my tank, roughly 5-6" below the surface and the lights are about 4-5" above the water.

 

The polyps are vital for the coral to live and thrive. If you just added him, he is probably still acclimating to your tank. Give it a couple days and he should get used to your tank as long as your parameters are in check. Just google image "polyp extension" or "acropora's polyps" or something, that should give you a better idea on what it should look like. What type of sps is it?

 

Good polyp extension and maintaining of colors. If the it starts to show whitening at the tips or base, then very not happy.

What type of acro did you get?

 

I'm not sure of the exact ID so if anyone knows that would be great. I got it from reef empire and it was just labeled as an acropora. Here's a pic of it. The pic doesn't show the color too well. It's a deeper purplish color and the base area is a light brown.

 

From that pic it looks like it's bleaching but it still has it's color.

 

ya it does look bleached out, i would put it mid way in your tank with good water flow, it might take a couple of months but the color should come back, as for polyp extension, not all acros show it during the day, look at night with a flashlight and see if you see them out then

 

i was told whitening at tips means growth extension?

 

Huh, didn't know that some only show polyps at night. Thanks for the tip.

 

sure no problem, i have a couple acros, especially the bottlebrush type that dont usually show polyps during the day, if they do it's just the very tips of them

 

I just shined a flashlight on it, and i can see the tips of the majority of the polyps, about the same as i see during the day. These things are really tiny though. Almost need a magnifying glass to see them.