Hammer coral partially torn at base??

[MapleReefer]

Hello!

First post on reef2reef, and unfortunately not the best one to make...

I noticed this morning that my hammer coral is slightly torn at its base. I attached some images below (lights off). It was not like this last night...
I also noticed that this specific head of the hammer hasn't fully opened in ~1 week. It looks like there is some algae growing on the base of the coral, which could be irritating it. I'll try to use a turkey baster today to dislodge as much algae as I can.

This is my first coral, as it's a relatively new aquarium (12gal). I put my first livestock ~4 weeks ago and nothing since: 2x clowns, 1x hammer coral, 2x nerite snails.
I've been going through the 'ugly phase' with a lot of brownish/greenish algae lately. The diatom bloom finished.

Any advice on what can be done to rescue this coral? Thank you!

Water parameters:
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
Salinity: 1.025
pH approx. 8.0

 

[Timfish]

I'd leave it alone and would not advise using a turkey baster as it won't do much for the algae and annoy the hammer. FWIW you have three polyps, 2 adult and a third baby easily seen in the 2nd picture. In a couple weeks you might consider giving it a 2 minute dip in a 6:1 aquarium water to H2O2 to knock back the algae.