Pavona

A plating and encrusting SPS with fine, closely spaced corallites that give the surface a rippled, almost fabric-like texture. More forgiving than acropora and a reasonable step up from montipora. PAR 150–250, moderate flow.
The forgiving SPS. Pavona sits between montipora and acropora in difficulty, which makes it the coral to try when encrusting montis have stopped being interesting but an acro still feels like a gamble. It encrusts fast across rock and then begins to plate outward, so give it space on a flat surface rather than a narrow ledge.
The fine, tightly packed corallites are what make it look like fabric under the light, and they are also the first thing to tell you something is wrong. A pavona that has gone smooth and glossy has retracted its polyps. Left like that for more than a day or two, tissue starts to recede from the growth edge.
Where it burns. Pavona will take high light but not a sudden change to it, and the thin plating edges bleach before the body does. Acclimate over two to three weeks, and keep the flow turbulent rather than pointed — detritus settling on a horizontal plate is the other common way to lose the growth edge.
Stability in alkalinity matters more than the number. Hold it between 8 and 9 dKH, keep nitrate and phosphate low but detectable, and a pavona will encrust a rock in a season.
How to identify it in the Coral Field Guide