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[Antalia]

I have a fortress in a warm, flat biome with a(n unusual?) aquifer situation. The aquifer starts right under the top layer of soil. (For example, if I channel down at the surface, the space immediately fills with water.) Since the biome never freezes, and since it was too close to the surface to plug, I decided to pump to get through the aquifer.

I normally plug my aquifers with glorious, speedy, simple cave-ins. Failing that, I freeze them. I plugged or froze my way through every aquifer I met in DF 2010 and 2012 so far. So this pumping was semi-new to me.

The pump method on the Dwarf Fortress wiki just would not work for me. I suspect it came from 40d, when dwarves were more willing to stand in 2-depth water to finish a job, or perhaps where the pumps were shoving them around less, or maybe aquifers were less...violent? than mine...I don't know. My dwarves got swept all over the room, the water was way too deep, and I don't think I could have finished it. But soon I found QuantumMenace's pumping method (I will link it in case it helps anyone else: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=79224.15). I was able to use that to get through the aquifer properly. There was a huge amount of annoyance with suspended jobs, but I did it. 

Now I want to punch a much bigger hole through my aquifer (so that I can install some convenient magma plumbing right up near the surface). But, I am afraid to trust the wiki about the method, because the 2012 article is nearly identical to the 40d one...and I've already run into one method that worked in 40d, but didn't seem to work in the newer version. Anyway the wiki says I can bore upwards through my aquifer from below, and as long as I'm draining into the cavern, nobody will drown or be swept down the drain or anything (well, I suppose safety is just implied, or assumed on my part, actually).

I know I can pump the aquifer some more and enlarge the hole I've already made, but my tolerance for un-suspending even one more job related to 2-depth water has...well, bottomed out. And the "from-below" method I'm looking at, seems likely to cause a lot of 2+ depth water in the area, too. Hopefully, I am misunderstanding how much water is going to fall on my dwarves, and what they'll be willing and able to do while that's happening. (?)

So, I'm just wondering, has anyone tried boring a big hole through an aquifer from below in DF2010/2012? Did you use the wiki method? Did any citizens drown or fall into any peril? Did it work out in the end? Thanks

[GoldenShadow]

Dig channels two at a time and pump water from both at once.  the builder stand in one tile, and builds a wall in the adjacent. When that is done, deconstruct the pump, move it down, leap frog the other pump and rebuild it, dig a new channel in front of it and make a wall in the place where the previous builder was standing.

Go this for 5-6 tiles, then turn 90 degrees, go 5-6 tiles, turn again until you have a complete box. Then you can dig out the middle and pump the last remaining water out until its dry.

It its a 1 layer aquifer, I just do a 2x2 staircase. I build 8 pumps around it, 2 per side and pump out the water as they build walls around the 2x2 stairwell.

I'm putting up a video that I just made how to quickly get through a 1 layer aquifer with pumps only.  This will work on the surface, but  you might want to use constructed wooden walls to control where the backwash will go.

[slothen]

once you have a bigger fortress, you can build and operate multiple pumps at once faster.  The more pumps you have, the less suspended jobs you'll get.  I'd also be hesitant to drain directly into a cavern.  If you do go that route, make sure to put some grates over the drain or your dwarves will get swept down.

[GoldenShadow]

Heres that video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IGy_Lbablk

[NecroRebel]

So, I'm just wondering, has anyone tried boring a big hole through an aquifer from below in DF2010/2012? Did you use the wiki method? Did any citizens drown or fall into any peril? Did it work out in the end? Thanks

I decided to try it. I dug a 3x3 staircase, with a map-edge fortification drain 1 z-level below my access point, then dug straight up. Aside from digging designation cancellations due to damp stone, there were no initial problems. Unfortunately, I tried to just drill through the whole 5-level aquifer in one go, and once my miners were above it the water was pouring down so fast that my access point was constantly covered by a 4/7-depth waterfall. I think if I had just done it one z-level at a time I could've easily sealed it off, and if I could've gotten materials in there sealing it also probably wouldn't have been a problem, but with so many aquifer tiles sourcing water drainage was impossible. I've savescummed back to before starting digging and will try again doing 1 z-level at a time.

Edit: Yep, that worked, quite effortlessly. I could've dug the staircase as big as I wanted and it would've been the same. I had a slightly easier time than most would because my aquifer was in stone, so I could just smooth it for a seal, but I have no doubt that it would function adequately when constructing walls over the outermost up/down stairs. Above the top level, the water appears to fall before it's produced in greater than 1/7-depth amounts, though I can't be 100% certain on that point.

[Antalia]

Oh, wow. This is really useful information! Thanks for the movie GoldenShadow--this is much faster and less cancellation spam than what I did. And thanks for doing the experiment NecroRebel! My dwarves need not fear the next big project now...

[Nil Eyeglazed]

It is, btw, really easy to make life-threatening mistakes when trying to punch a hole up through an aquifer.  I know, because I made a lot of those mistakes recently.

Before anything else, get your drainage set up.  I would recommend 2 z-levels of drainage to prevent any cancellation spam, but 1 z-level is sufficient.  Drain into map-edge fortifications (don't need  lot, teleportation will keep it from choking).  Put some grates up over your drainage-- any mistakes, and dwarves will otherwise get knocked into your drainage, risking death by drowning.

Next, carve the entire staircase, from the bottom up (your miner will just end up refusing if you do it from the top down).  Your miner will spam cancellations, but he'll get it done.

Next, dig your top-most channels, adjacent to your staircase.  You don't need to worry about diagonals.  Dig only a single z-level of channels, or else your miner risks getting knocked off the staircase by flow.  Your miner may suffer cancellations, but he'll get it done.  Once all of these channels are completed, build your constructions in the empty space left by your channels.

Once one z-level's aquifer is completely walled off, move to the next z-level down: dig out all channels, then build all walls, then move to the next z-level down.  This is how you do it, without any deaths or pumps, up through an aquifer of any depth.

[GoldenShadow]

I've done this too. I dug a 10x10 staircase up through an aquifer. Biggest thing to do is make sure your working floor, where your miners and masons go in and out is not solid. don't use upstairs, dig up/downs and dig out the level below it. Then make sure that lower level is connected to the map edge to drain out.