Can my freshwater fish survive for 3 week with just a power head circulating water? Do I have to go buy another filter?

What kind of filter? And do you have lots of plants in the tank?

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

The powerhead will do a LOT to help your fish survive while you wait for the filter. Just remember that the filter only moves water and provides a convenient surface for particulate matter to encounter bacteria, which is also all over your tank.

If you change the water at least once a week, your fish should be fine. Especially if you have a lot of plants. Just remember that people have been keeping goldfish in unfiltered bowls for YEARS, just doing water changes.

I have a 55 gal planted tank with low light plants and T5 2 bulb light. Fairly well planted.

Should be fine, make sure to do 50% water changes each week

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

No it's not that simple. It's an Eheim 2026 square shaped gasket and Eheim has these back-ordered 2 weeks pulse 1 week shipping. So I get to wait because I have not found any other supplier. If anyone knows where else I can look that would be great. Thanks

make your own gasket in the meantime.

FWIW I have a 55g low tech tank fairly planted. Like all my previous tanks it has no mechanical filter or powerhead. So and especially with plants thriving you will be ok.

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Yeah, for real, make your own gasket.
Any plumbing supply house should have sheets of both cork and rubber specifically for making gaskets for potable water. There is also a clear lubrication/sealing paste made for faucets etc that is safe for drinking water, but you likely wont need that.

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150G, 1 shovelnose sturgeon 8", 1 polypterus endilicheri 9", 1 leopard ctenapoma 4", 1 Distichodus Sexfasciatus 6", 1 Farlowella acus algae eater 8", 2 silver dollars, 2 tank bred angelfish, 1 clown knife 11", 1 Jaguar hybrid syntadonis 4", 6 African cichlids 3+"

Hello Jewel...

I would say absolutely your fish will be fine for the three weeks, provided you're willing to replace half the tank water every couple of days.

Actually, if you removed and replaced half the tank water daily, you wouldn't need any filtration. Filtration equipment only takes in very toxic water and replaces that with somewhat less toxic water.

So, by constantly flushing clean, treated water through your tank, any filtration equipment you have is just filtering water that's already clean.

However, since I don't know anybody who has the time to do that many water changes, then you do need some filtration to keep the tank water reasonably clean between changes.

Again, IMO if you follow the above WC routine, your fish will be fine.

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper