With the ADA soil you are going to be fighting a losing battle until the soil starts to lose its buffering capabilities. The ADA is doing what it is supposed to be doing. All my tanks run between 5.8-6.0 and my shrimps breed like rabbits.
Bigger tank means less upkeep and more stable water conditions. Bigger tanks are far more forgiving when it comes to mistakes or neglect. The down side is the initial setup can be or will be expensive. My favorite size is 180 gallons.
Super easy to keep and reproduces faster than neo's. The clutches are huge. So far about 1/3 of the babies have the amount of black that people see in the pictures that SteveR posted.
I obtained two batches from original breeder and are breeding like rabbits but they wont be for sale until late spring, was -31 degrees Sunday morning here in central MN.Cant sell or buy anything for a while.
Its not there and still cant pay you through the invoice you sent via email from forum site. I will look in the morning and see if I can figure it out.
I would boil for 10-15min. How many leaves to put in really depends on the size of the leaves. Some oaks have more tannins than others, red oak for example have more tannins than white so that would be another factor to consider.