black kuhlis in the 45

Changed my mind on the bottom dwellers for this tank. Today I moved in my four black kuhli loaches. For several reasons: all my kuhlis are starting to get mature and more healthy-looking, robust in girth. I am starting to wonder if they might breed because I see new behavior. I would want the black and striped ones separate if that happens. (Not sure if they would cross, though). And I decided it would just be cool to see the kuhlis slipping in and out of the leaf litter, rather than boisterous catfish shoving everything around (which I've seen even the smaller peppered ones do in the QT that had this kind of decor). No pictures of them yet because I have the light off for the day so they can de-stress.

Here's how it looks now.

I moved a few things around to put the corner filter actually in the corner, and the clay arch behind the anubias thicket. I'm reconsidering my filtration, too. Maybe I will get a second quality sponge filter and just run one in each corner, instead of investing in a canister. I keep hearing horror stories from folks I know- one guy told me he knew a canister to blow a gasket and leak all over under the stand, another told me if power goes out and the media is stagnant for hours, when you turn on the filter again all that dead stuff kicked into the tank will kill the fishes. Yikes. I never had any issues yet with my Eheim in the 38, but I still feel nervous every time I go to flip the valves and open it up. A sponge is so easy- seems like no risk- as long as it can keep the water clear.

I tested parameters again this morning. Zero ammonia or nitrite, 10ppm nitrate. I thought the leaf litter would affect pH but it's at 7.8 just like the tap. I'm going to add more soon.