What the heck is coming out of my purple tip elegance?

[super_steve85]

A couple of days ago I noticed these orange "spikes" sticking up out of my Aussie elegance. I've never seen them before and don't know what they are. Any ideas? I recently have had a little rise in my PO4 (up to .04 from 0) and have had some GHA growth. Maybe this is causing some sort of reaction in the coral?

 

[cloak]

It might be some type of algae or perhaps a sponge that was growing on the corals skeleton. Now that conditions are right it's staring to take off. It's harmless IMO, but if you want to get rid of it you should be able to pull it off with your fingers.

 

[super_steve85]

It does look sponge-ish. Really strange. This is my first elegance and I just want to be sure that these aren't a normal occurrence.