A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Living Water Aquaponics store beginning?

J Shocklie sent me a message saying they want to get involved with the gathering of materials for us ap people. They had good ideas with reusing stuff like spas and freezers that would make a great container for fish. I suggested using my website design skills to form a website showing materials available. I have registered the domain name livingwaterap.com, so if anyone out there knows where to get stuff either free or for a price please let me or J Shocklie know.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on July 21, 2012 at 8:03am

Those are some good ideas.

Might be a challenge to place bulkheads in, but with a liner even a freezer could be an ugly, but decent size tank complete with insulation.

Permalink Reply by David Schwinghamer on July 21, 2012 at 2:17pm

Wouldnt a siphon pipe be just as good Bob?

Permalink Reply by J Shocklie on July 21, 2012 at 6:23pm

Geez, I've been trying to leave messages all day but my internet is being unfriendly today. :(

But basically we are going to dedicate time each week to gathering supplies around the valley that we find on craigslist and other listings for FREE or for a very low price as we search for our own items. We have come across a lot of material that would be useful for someone but we didn't necessarily need it and we didn't have the truck to get it. A lot of the stuff is people just telling you to take it cause they don't have the means to transport it away, like that big pool Dr. Brooks has pics of on his site. You can get it at walmart for like $200-$300 and these people were giving it away for free if you would go and just take it down and haul it off. And it was the hard plastic pool, not the inflatable. I hate that anyone missed out on a great opportunity. I might not have been able to get it but one of us could have!

So while we gather supplies we will let people know what we come across. We'll also grab stuff we think people can use (buckets, blue barrels, pumps, tanks) as we come across them. We'll also be running through some yard sales and seeing what we can find. We've begun collecting wood and supplies around the neighborhoods (even went through some of the farm areas) on bulk trash pick up day. And we would love to partner up with people who are interested in doing the same thing. It's going to take some time gathering useful things but we've gotta start somewhere!

Permalink Reply by J Shocklie on July 21, 2012 at 6:24pm

Thanks David for getting us started!

Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on July 21, 2012 at 7:04pm

@Dave - Yeah a siphon will work. I think you guys are doing something really cool.

Are you looking at FreeCycle?

Permalink Reply by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on July 21, 2012 at 7:12pm

Sounds like an interesting idea.

Permalink Reply by J Shocklie on July 24, 2012 at 7:25pm

Thanks for the heads up on freecycle Bob!! I did take a look at it. The more sources, the better.

Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on July 25, 2012 at 8:30am

Networking with the right people could work well.

Hot tubs have a short life expectancy. Just talking to the people who sell them may open a symbiotic relationship.

There are a couple guys here in Chico who built a cart that slides in such a way that they can make it wide or narrow. They are able to take it into a back yard, and slide it to size in a matter of minutes. They place the hot tub on and roll it to through the gate. Then tip it onto their trailer and they are off and away. They call them selves the Hot Tub Guys. They charge $150.00 for the service. I was happy to pay that amount.

You could be the Hot Tub Guys or you could network with those people in your area.

The people at the dump may also help you out. Landfills fill up quickly, and if they could find a way to avoid disposing of a hot tub they may work with you. Ours has a separate area where appliances, tires, and concrete are held aside. Maybe yours would hold bath tubs and hot tubs.

Disposal of old refrigerators is a problem too. Even after the refrigerant is removed they are still toxic because of the foam insulation. Re purposing may benefit the landfill. Networking with appliance stores may yield more refrigerators and freezers than you can use.

Permalink Reply by Jean Allen on July 25, 2012 at 4:24pm

How about the freecycle lists? If you post on there that you will take those items, it will be a great relief, and people will know they are being recycled. A win win for everyone.

Permalink Reply by Sheri Schmeckpeper on July 26, 2012 at 4:15pm

Wow, great ideas all around!

We gave our spa away a few years back (pre-AP). We lifted it on its side and used pipes to roll it out. It wasn't too bad.

One of you must have some space to store the AP junk/treasure yard! :)

Permalink Reply by J Shocklie on July 26, 2012 at 5:23pm

Yeah space is a big issue so we're being picky on what we will bring home right now. We have a lot of space but we want to make sure it goes to stuff that will definitely be used versus junk sitting around. We're going to be doing our searching and see if we find anything good. I dunno, it could be a bust. It's just something we started looking at as we've become very frugal with building our system so we are scavenging big time. But we gotta start somewhere and we just happened to see some stuff one night and was shocked that we could so much useful stuff.

I'll let y'all know if I find something cool.....

Permalink Reply by James Jasper on August 15, 2012 at 10:30am

@j shocklie, good idea. will you have a list of items available?

J Shocklie said:

Yeah space is a big issue so we're being picky on what we will bring home right now. We have a lot of space but we want to make sure it goes to stuff that will definitely be used versus junk sitting around. We're going to be doing our searching and see if we find anything good. I dunno, it could be a bust. It's just something we started looking at as we've become very frugal with building our system so we are scavenging big time. But we gotta start somewhere and we just happened to see some stuff one night and was shocked that we could so much useful stuff.

I'll let y'all know if I find something cool.....