Can nitrate spike hurt zoas?

[Just John]

My nitrates have always been close to zero, so I decided to dose the tank. Without thinking, I did it the night before I left for a week. The next morning nitrates were at 35, but I didn't have time to do anything about it. When I returned a week later they were 10. I have about 20 different zoas and all but two had grown noticeably. One was a small utter chaos colony that was bleaching and the other one had lost the skirts and were umbrella-ing. Could it be from the nitrates?

Everything else was about as usual.
pH - 8.1
Alk - 7.8
Nitrate - 10
Phos - .02
Amm - 0

 

[Fish Think Pink]

My nitrates have always been close to zero, so I decided to dose the tank. Without thinking, I did it the night before I left for a week. The next morning nitrates were at 35, but I didn't have time to do anything about it. When I returned a week later they were 10. I have about 20 different zoas and all but two had grown noticeably. One was a small utter chaos colony that was bleaching and the other one had lost the skirts and were umbrella-ing. Could it be from the nitrates?

Everything else was about as usual.
pH - 8.1
Alk - 7.8
Nitrate - 10
Phos - .02
Amm - 0

Maybe but more info... any toadstool / leathers in with zoas? Might there have been a power outage? Was food constant? What else changed while you were gone?

I went back East... averaged loss of 1 something for every day gone and was glad trip wasn't longer. Had to go back East for longer, and family didn't kill as much but still... Last trip was only 4 nights & 5 days, and while they didn't kill anything new I'm still recovering from the 5 week trip June-July immediately before this July trip...

 

[Just John]

Leathers all shed a week or two before I left, if that's what you were thinking about. The only difference was that I did not spot feed them during the week the way I usually do, but I would not think it would have such a dramatically negative effect, especially when everything else was doing so great. I guess my main concern now is should I put the bleaching utter chaos down lower.