Plant sump help with removing algae?

[spongebob281]

A well maintain sump wit lot of plants would reduce the number of time I have to clean my glass since plants compete with algae for DOC? Someone please enlighten me on this matter.

 

[zotek]

it sounds like what you are trying to do is a refugium. Try google refugium and see what you can find

 

[luohanfan]

algae is caused by excess light and nutrients.. cut down the amount of light and food going into the tank..
you can also increase flow in your tank with powerheads.. this may help..
But you will never get rid of it all..

 

[schaadrak]

While a planted sump will remove a lot of nutrients from the system as a whole, they will not pull them directly from the main tank until the water reaches the sump. The light and nutrients being produced in the main tank will still initially be available to the algae.

The best way to use plants to control algae without completely restructuring the tank is to use floating plants. They'll pull a lot of nutrients from the tank and cover the top which will reduce the amount of light. And they're easy to prune, just scoop out a few net-fulls a week. This might not be an option for you depending on your current set-up, but it's cheaper and more effective than adding a refugium.

 

[JakeH]

Plants never really hurt the process, but the algae should be controlled other ways.