Could a coral be covered?

[roadrunner]

Can a coral such as a star polyp be covered enough by brown algea that some of it wont open up? Could something like this be possible and if algea is placed on a coral such as this what could you do to remove it?

 

[az]

can you wave water over it to remove it from the coral or use a small hose to syphon it off. but if it left on there for to long it will hurt the coral and it could die.

 

[mike_cmu04]

i agree after time the algae will kill the coral

 

[stanlalee]

algea coverage doesn't happen on a lot of soft or LPS corals, they generally have defenses to prevent it (or comsume). Those hard corals, fans, sponges ect that it can happen to generally require good waterflow to prevent algae from taking hold. With star polyps I would assume it would only be possible for the base (not the polyps) to grow algae on it but I've never had them or an algae problem so I'm not sure.