If you have an algae problem then first you should identify what exactly is causing the problem is it truely high nitrates that are causing your problem or is it excessive light or is your tapwater loaded with phosphates and other nuitrients. Plants may consume enough nuitrients to starve algae or they may not it would all depend on ultimately what light source you have. The lighting determines how fast the plant will photosynthesize and thereby consume Co2, Iron, Nitrates, Phosphates and an extremely long list of other micronuitrients. If the plants recieve high light but are missing out on sufficient amounts of one of these nuitrients their photsynthesis will slow down to a point which accomodates the lower amounts of that nuitrient. For example (This is purely theoretical none of these values are real it is purely for illustrations sake):
Let's say that for every 60 micromols of PAR (photosynthetically active radiation- light basicaly) A plant will need 15 ppm of co2, 1 ppm of iron, 10 ppm of nitrate, 2 ppm phosphates and 3 ppm of assorted other nutrients.
Now lets say we have a light source giving off 180 micromols of par in order for the plant to optimaly photsynthesize at this level we would need triple of all those values. But what if we don't lets say that we tripple everytihng except co2 basicaly what happens would be the plant continues phosynthesizing at the rate that accomodates the least plentiful nutrient (in this case co2) therefore we still have an overabundance of all those other nutrients in the tank now this is when alage begisn to grow becuase algae is alot more varible in how much of one particular nutrient it uses so basicaly it can gobble up any leftover nutrients.
See what im getting at? In order for you to choke out algae growth without changing anything else about your water chemistry you will need to match your lighting, co2 injection and fertilization according to make sure your plants have access to those nuitrients and not algae.
That being said the best plant i think for nitrate removal are ones grown emmersed (with their tops out of the water) lucky bamboo works great. Being exposed to the air with it's roots in the water means it has access to the very large amount of co2 in the air that algae dosen't have access to. Shine a strong light on them and they start to soak up nuitrients in the water VERY VERY quickly (becuase they are not limited by the co2) and at the same time there isn't any extra co2 in the water that the algae may be able to utilize.
Overall i think you should look at what in particular is causing your algae problems and correct that and then think about using plants only if you are unable to fix that.
In conclusion Yes there are plants that can choke out algae Infact nearly all plants can do it it's just a matter of providing the right conditions.
