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Trying to advoid algae blooms

Back in June my tank was doing fine, or so I thought.  I had started keeping
plants in March and had noticed my nitrates started dropping.  When the
nitrates had dropped to zero, I was naive enough at the time to think this
was a good thing.  Around the same time I started reading this list and
someone mentioned phosphates test.  Well being new to all of this I didn't
have a phosphates kit, so I went and got one.  To my surprise the phosphates
were off the chart (10+).  At first I knew so little I didn't even know if
this was bad, but after doing some homework on the net I was very concerned.
Based on what I had read I couldn't understand why I didn't have major algae
problems.  I even posted the phosphate question here
(http://www.actwin.com/fish/aquatic-plants/month.200006/msg00625.html).
Within a couple of days I had a green algae bloom.  Based on what I had read
I wasn't surprise.

Now here I am a couple of months later with all of that behind me, my tank
is doing fine again and I've been keeping a close eye on my phosphates.
This week I noticed my nitrates starting to drop again and at the same time
I read Thomas Barr's comments about adding KNO3 to his tanks
(http://www.actwin.com/fish/aquatic-plants/month.200010/msg00134.html).  Is
it possible the combination of high phosphates and zero nitrates caused my
algae bloom?  At the time I thought it was just from the phosphates, but now
I'm thinking it was a combination of the two.

Currently my nitrates are close 6.  Not bad, but they were 12 just two weeks
ago, and I have not done any water changes to get them down.  Phosphates are
about .75.  The plants are growing so fast I can't believe it, but I'm
afraid the green water is just around the corner.  I've never measured Iron,
Potassium or any other trace elements so I have no idea if they might be a
problem.

Does it sound like I should be adding small amounts of nitrates to my tank?
If so how should I go about doing it?  I'm not a chemist so please keep it
simple.