Coral deaths unlikely due to nitrates

[Snappy]

I have been thinking that nitrates may be playing a smaller part in my tanks' RTN / bleaching equation after all. I hadn't even thought about a leak that we had from our dishwasher that had been dripping through the floor right into my reef. Along with the soapy water, we had just renovated so there was fairly fresh grout, tile set, glue, of course the wood underneath it and then it was soaking up whatever chemicals are in the basement ceiling tiles before dripping straight into my tank. A few weeks ago I was puttering around my tank when I saw water dripping into the tank off my light fixture, this immediately got my attention. I did some investigating and discovered the DW was leaking. I asked me wife about it and apparently she had played "handyman" a few weeks earlier when I was out of town with work and had created a leak we were unaware of and she had been running the DW as usual. Being away I hadn't noticed the problem until this had been going on for several weeks. I think this might be my real problem. Any thoughts?

[christyf5]

Hmm, I'd say that could definitely contribute. Who knows what that water filtered through to get to the tank. How fast would you say it was dripping? Dishwasher soap has all kinds of nasties in it, not to mention all the grouty bits and stuff you mentioned

Time for some monstro water changes I think??

[marie]

I would say that is also probably why your nitrates went so high, soap is usually chock full of nitrates and phosphates. I did have a hard time believing a healthy tank can't go without a skimmer for a few weeks.

Not to mention, you have someone else to blame .

[Delphinus]

It doesn't sound like something that would help the overall health of a tank. Hard to say, now that you've found the problem (the leak) and can address it you can see if things start to rebound.

As suggested I would do the water changes, plus I would ensure I was using carbon actively (ie. power filter or phosban reactor) and changing the carbon out at a minimum of once per week.

[Snappy]

I have done 8 water changes in the past week.

[MikeP]

It sounds like you have found the problem. Good luck, I hope everything works out for you.