KNO3 dosing

["Kinney, Travis" <kinney at pdtarchs_com>]

My KNO3 is in the form of small round spheres. I've been dosing dry
ingredients and the KNO3 sits on the tank bottom for about a day after which
they are completely dissolved. I've been thinking that dosing this way has
caused an increase in my beard algae problem on my aquarium gravel. Could
the high concentration of nitrate prior to water column absorption be
causing the beard algae to flourish? Should I grind the KNO3 pellets up
first then dose? Maybe I should dissolve it first in a separate container
(kind of eliminates the ease of dry dosing though). I assume there is a
finer ground powder form of KNO3 available?

-Travis