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Old 12-20-2013, 05:35 AM
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Default Vertex UF-20 media filter - space saving (?) mod

Picked up a UF-20 media filter earlier this year thinking I would use it for pellets. Fast forward to today and the plans have changed, I want to use more GFO on my big tank and take the phosban reactor from there and put it in use on the smaller tank.

Noticed that Vertex has changed the design of these but the new ones seem to have the same problem as this one, and that is that it uses 3/4" hose barbs for attachments. This ends up taking a lot of space:

IMG_5612.jpg

.. by the time you have a hose barb and adapter on the discharge line, the plumbing for this reactor needs at least 12" of clearance, maybe even more.

So, a quick trip to Western Pump here in YYC and I have the following parts:
- 2x 1/2" slip unions (note, in the end only needed 1)
- 2x 1/2" inside to street coupler (note, in the end only needed 1)
- 2x 1/2" street to threaded adapters
- 2x 1/2" street x slip 90 degree elbow

(Note - "inside" means the coupler grabs the inside of the pipe. "Street" means it will fit inside a female end coupling, the same as would the pipe itself, "slip" and "thread" are the more commonly seen coupling styles.)

IMG_5613.JPG


First off to cut the union end of the discharge line. The inside needs to be ground out a tiny bit to fit the inside coupler:

IMG_5614.JPG


One change of plan: the valve side and the union are one solid piece. Cutting the union off is thus not advisable, so I ground out the barb from the union fitting and just fed the street elbow into that. This means one union and one inside-to-street coupler wasn't needed, so they become donations to the spare PVC parts drawer 'cuz you just never know when you need some obscure PVC bit at some odd hour of the night...

Ta da!!!!
IMG_5615.JPG

Hopefully this will take up a little less real estate. Plus using 1/2" lines to accomodate the typical size from a Maxijet as a feed pump will help a lot.

Also leaving the ends as threaded means down the road if I want to step up the feed lines size back to 3/4" or whatever, all that's needed is the appropriate size adapter.

...

What I really wish for these reactors is that the feed line and discharge lines would be parallel (to and from) rather than in a straight line. That may also be a viable modification to make for these units; but it would involve cutting the plumbing at the base of the lid and reseating them in the new configuration.
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Last edited by Delphinus; 12-20-2013 at 05:38 AM.
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