save my sympodium

[mjpinsky]

I purchased a small frag of green blue sympodium. It did not like the spot I picked for it and is shrunk and turned boney grey. My LCS said that grey is bad but blue is dead -- change its location to different lighting and flow. I did so (put it at top of tank in moderate flow) and it SLOWLY came back to life. The polyps are only 1/2 the size and are plain green. But it WAS alive and it slowly started to encrust the rock and eventualy grew off its plug to be fully on the rockbed. Story great so far...... my piece of pipe coral has grown well in past three years and has now reached the rock the sympodium is on. I did not know pipe coral had stinging properties but it has already killed 1/3 of the small sympodium (down to the bright blue skeleton). It is fully encrusted in place. What is the best method to try and remove it in an attempt to save its life? Hammer and chisel?? Sharp knife?? or is it doomed?? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.