Hi all, I've been reading over the forum and the content is amazing thanks very much for all your help! That being said I can't seem to find some info, so here is my project and conditions.

I've had an old lake excavated down to a mix of clay and clay/gravel, pretty clean stuff that leaves no grey silt when messed with.

5 acres in size, kidney bean shaped.

average depth 7 feet, down to 10/12 in areas.

trickle stream in from upper ponds that I can control.

Some spring input

Water goes from cold to warm when swimming in it, not sure if it is spring action or just deeper colder water being churned by wave action.

DO testing shows 4ppm at 2 feet down and 7ppm at 6 inches down, 3 years ago before i excavated I tested the lake in the winter and was getting 3 to 4 ppm under the ice, 7.5 ph.

PH currently shows 7.5

Very little to almost no weeds.

I've introduced about 500 sunfish and a few thousand minnows to it and i can see the swimming around and hitting bugs etc.

I've refilled the lake after it was excavated from a massive upper pond that has lots of tannins in it, my new lake is very dark which I suspected would happen and also expect it to clear out after the first and second winter with fall rain/winter snow/spring melt off.. Before the lake was excavated it was crystal clear....but the otters blew the dam so it was time to rebuild everything.

So, that's the history and now I'm wondering about aeration. Because this lake is so new but with tannin rich pond water can I safely aerate it from no on? I'd like to start the process so I can keep the ice off part of it this winter for photosynthesis and to give what fish i have in there a helping hand.

And, should I place the diffusers at about half depth as to not turn over the depths in the winter?

Are the tannins going to be affected by the aeration and in turn affect the fish?

I have a 270W panel, large airpump, controller, diffusers etc.

Many thanks for your input!

Lou