This is a great write up! I also live in NYC and have my own funky setup semi aquaponic except it's not for edible plants, but rather for a banana tree!

Do you all go to any of the ny area aquarium clubs? Sounds silly but I didn't think I'd find another nyc experimental aquarist here on Lemmy!

a gallon of fresh water weighs roughly 8.34lbs

I laughed at this part

Are there any edible plants you can grow underwater in an aquarium? Got an axolotl tank and currently the plants growing in it just go in the compost bin when I cut them back periodically.

They do a good job of filtering the water though, nitrate levels are lower than the tap water I filled the tank with. Just would be nice to grow something more useful as I am already running the lights. Extra lights for another tub is more power use and I don't know if it would be worth the energy cost.

This is so cool! I've always wanted to do a planted tank with shrimp, it'd be incredible if I could do an edible planted tank with shrimp