Making adapters to retrofit Easy Flow kits to my Under Gravel Filter Plates.

[Pepere]

I thought some people might like to see how I retrofitted some Easy Flow kits to my UGF plates.

The first step was going to the hardware store to find some fittings that might work.

 

These 3/4 threaded adapter will fit just fine once the threads are filed down..  The air riser tube from the UGF is a loose fir.  A little polyurethane sealant will take care of that one…  The fittings are 69 cents each.

 

with the fitting secured in the vice 5 or so minutes quickly files down the threads.

rest fitting shows how much to trim down.

snug but not overly tight fit.  I used the vice to press fit the collar onto the adapter.  It can come off by hand and the collar shows no sign of deformation.

I cut off bit of the solvent fit edge as well. About 1/2 an inch of gluing surface.

I cut two 1 1/2 inch section of air riser tube and deburred.  You can see it will never work as friction fit.

I applied a little 3M 4200 polyurethane sealant witha q tip and then fitted the air riser tubes and cleaned up squeeze out.

 

I will let these sit overnight before fitting them in my tank tomorrow and fitting the easy flow kit on them.

At most I may have spent a half hour on this..  the photos and typing of this post probably took longer.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by Pepere

[Pepere]

15 hours later…

Before fitting the easy flow kit, the bubbles simply came out of the elbows on the air riser tube and popped on the surface.  There was no flow velocity carrying them.

 

photo above taken with canister filter unplugged and hence no flow coming out of the spray bar.

[Pepere]

During waterchange you can see the Easy Flow kit on my UGF gives about 5 inches of head.  Plain air risers with Ziss airstones give about 1 1/2 inches of head.  

[Galabar]

Looks amazing.  Thanks for sharing!

I kind of want to go old school and start a 10 gallon with an "old fashined" corner filter, paired with an easy flow kit. 🙂

 

[Pepere]

The air collar of the Easy Flow kit will fit decent on a medium sized Lee’s Triple flow filter.

 

the large would need an adapter.