The looped hose works but looks bad, the caps/clamps look less bad & work & last along time. Best is see if the nipples will come out easily w a pipe wrench or vice grips & if not heat the base threads w a small tip on the hot wrench let some candle wax (bees wax is reportedly the best) wick in then take em out & add a common hardware store pipe plug (they are NPT just like the nipples you are taking out, no drilling/retapping needed) either an internal hex or the external square (what you see in the above pic) w white teflon pipe dope or tape on the threads (w tape wrap it CW looking at the threaded end of the plug)