water gauge drops to zero and check gauge light comes on

Are you speaking of the engine temperature gauge? You are saying that the temperature drops all of the sudden on your dash, then the check gauge light comes on? Are you having any other issues with the vehicle at all? Any performance issues? Any other warning lights? If it is just the coolant gauge suddenly dropping and a "check gauges" warning indicator coming on, then you could have an isolated problem with a engine coolant temperature sensor, the related circuit, or the instrument cluster. Testing is needed, using a diagnostic tool that can read the information from the sensor and also commands the body related cluster to check for functionality.