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[Berossus]

Basically there are two ways to get the kind of water you're talking about.

1.  Breach the cavers and find one with water, hopefully up against a map edge.  Presto, infinite water.
2.  DFHack, liquids.  (If you do this be sure to switch from magma first.  Or not.)

1.) What if you take a section of the caerns that is open against the map edge, build a pool-edge around it, and fill it with water via buckets? would the water, once reaching the map edge, behave like it originally spawned there, i.e. replicate itself infinitly?

[Starver]

I believe water being put at the map edge will leak infinitely.  (If I don't misunderstand you.  After all, that's what edge-fortification drains do, etc.)

[itg]

I think a pump stack from the caverns to the surface really is the easiest method here. Designating the mining and building jobs may be a bit of a pain, but it'll take you far less time than all this freezing/unfreezing nonsense, and it should be much easier to go large scale.

[Varnifane]

Something I have been thinking of using for magma.

I read that if you send a minecart through water/magma and dump the minecart it dumps out 2/7 of the liquid, but only removes 1/7 from the liquid it ran through.

What want to do is set up a channel with the fluid and multiple minecarts running automatically back and forth through the liquid dumping into a reservoir at each stop. A pump would pull from the reservoir to keep the trough/channel full at 7/7. With 7 carts it would net 7/7 of liquid each pass.

[MadocComadrin]

I believe water being put at the map edge will leak infinitely.  (If I don't misunderstand you.  After all, that's what edge-fortification drains do, etc.)

It will, but if you have enough water at the freezing tick, it will form ice regardless.

[imperium3]

Something I have been thinking of using for magma.

I read that if you send a minecart through water/magma and dump the minecart it dumps out 2/7 of the liquid, but only removes 1/7 from the liquid it ran through.

What want to do is set up a channel with the fluid and multiple minecarts running automatically back and forth through the liquid dumping into a reservoir at each stop. A pump would pull from the reservoir to keep the trough/channel full at 7/7. With 7 carts it would net 7/7 of liquid each pass.

Now that's what I'm talking about!

[Gentlefish]

Protip: You only need 2/7 water to form an icewall, which melts back into 7/7 water. But you probably already knew this. And only applies if the map melts for a little bit during the year.

Using the minecart method, if I understand right, you would dump 2/7, right? You don't need to fill the whole thing up, just enough passes with a mine cart to get it to 2/7 or so.

[Urist Da Vinci]

Something I have been thinking of using for magma.

I read that if you send a minecart through water/magma and dump the minecart it dumps out 2/7 of the liquid, but only removes 1/7 from the liquid it ran through.

What want to do is set up a channel with the fluid and multiple minecarts running automatically back and forth through the liquid dumping into a reservoir at each stop. A pump would pull from the reservoir to keep the trough/channel full at 7/7. With 7 carts it would net 7/7 of liquid each pass.

Now that's what I'm talking about!

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=109460.msg3345378#msg3345378

Carts appear to remove 1/7 or 2/7 from the liquid it drives through, as long as that liquid is 6/7 or 7/7 deep (5/7 doesn't work). The carts always dump 2/7*, so you have a chance of gaining some liquid, or a chance of net zero.

I haven't seen a water or magma generator built yet based on this principle.

*You can mod the raws to get larger carts that take 2/7 and dump 7/7, always producing a net +5/7.

[knutor]

Quickfort a quicktrack.

[Xob Ludosmbax]

I haven't tested it, but a cross section of an idea I had for an infinite water generator (in a freezing biome):


      ___
____|~~~~
 | %%_|
 |_%% |
    |~|


There is one tile of "seed" water (~), exposed to the air, and some non-flowing magma (~) (preferably 7/7, but you can probably use less). 

The _ is a hatch attached to a minecart repeater. 

Spoiler: I'm not sure how temperature and magma flow is calculated, so you may need to put the hatch on the lower level instead, like this. (click to show/hide)

      ___
____|~~~~
 | %% |
 |_%%_|
    |~|

Spoiler: Or you may need to give the magma some room to flow, like this.  You will need to top off the magma once in a long while. (click to show/hide)

      ___
____|~~~~
 | %%__|
 |_%%  |
    |~~|

The %% is a powered, magma safe pump stack, perhaps attached to a windmill above, since you're on the surface anyway.  The top pump should be built first. 

The pump stack/repeater combo sends pulses of magma under the water, melting it regularly, and allowing it to refreeze. and the water flows away down the hallway.  You may need to depressurize the water at the end of the hall before dropping it into a cistern, to try to prevent the water from dropping to 1/7 too quickly or too often, depending on the repeater frequency and freezing time.  And you may need to play with how frequently the repeater triggers, to give the water time to freeze. 

IF you try it out, please let me know if it works.

[imperium3]

Imperium3 cancels Do Science: Interrupted by Zombie Wild Boars.

The dwarves have suspended the construction of Wall.

I nearly had a prototype generator finished, but almost all of the fort is now insane or dead (including, most inconveniently, the mechanic). Might be a good case for reclamation though...

[Xob Ludosmbax]

So, it does work, but not exactly as I had thought. 

I ended up implementing it with no hatches at all, and a 5x7 repeater attached to a gear assembly powering the pump stack.  Also, 1/7 water unfreezes then refreezes to 1/7 water.  You need at least 2/7 water as the seed to get it to multiply.  Finally, I had it going down a short 1 tile wide pipe, through an angle, into a cistern 1 z level lower.  After a while, the water dropped to 1/7 and the top ice layer had to be opened up again, and the water had to be reseeded to 2/7.  However, the flow rate is rather impressive.  It took me 3 windmills to power it. 

----

In summary, I was able to multiply water using the freeze/thaw cycle.  This is how I did it.

Cross Section:

      ___
___*|~~~~
 | %% |
 |_%% |
    |~|


There is one tile of "seed" water (~), exposed to the air, and some non-flowing magma (~) (I had 6/7). 

The * is a gear attached to a minecart repeater, and further down, 3 windmills.  Make sure that the gear is over the walkable tile of the pump, so that the water doesn't flow on to the gear and freeze everything up.

The %% is a magma safe pump stack.  The top pump should be built first.  You need to build some of the machinery on top first, to hang the pump off of. 

The pump stack/repeater combo sends pulses of magma under the water, melting it regularly, and allowing it to refreeze. and the water flows away down the hallway.  The seed water (~) must be at 2/7 in order for the water to multiply. 

If the seed water drops to 1/7, you need to break open the newly formed ice floor on top, and pour some more water in. 

--

The following is an idea that may help prevent the water dropping to 1/7. 


      ______
___*|~~~~_^|__
 | %% | |~~ -> Cistern
 |_%% |
    |~|


The ^ is a pressure plate set to 6/7 water, and it is attached to a hatch cover - _. 

--

edit: Just tested, and it works wonderfully.  Flow rate is really good too.  Not quite like piercing an aquifer or a river, but it's not too far off.  It does reduce FPS somewhat, but I have no idea how to reduce that to a meaningful number. 

If you want to see it in action, save is at http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=6936 
I have no idea on the status of the fortress, as I mostly just ignored the dwarves.  It does use a tileset.  I had invaders off and pop cap set to 30.  And it is modded a bit, but the mods aren't really relevant, and shouldn't be noticable. 

[Hans Lemurson]

On a Glacial-Volcano embark, I created a relatively simple device which I called the "Magma Tickler".

It consists of a reservoir of magma 2z below the ice, and a screw-pump.  When the screw pump is active, it sucks the magma from the reservoir and dumps it out on the layer just below the ice.  The ice melts as soon as it's exposed to magma below, but then the magma re-settles and the water freezes again.  Because of the erratic manner in which the pumped magma re-settles into its reservoir, this effectively creates an extremely rapid freeze/thaw cycle.  The device must be located at the edge of a freezing and non-freezing zone so the water can drain away.

When the pump is active (dwarf power will suffice), the flow rate from the "Magma Tickler" is comparable to that of a breached aquifer.  I was able to produce a torrent of water on demand with just a screw pump and a pool of magma.  GETTING the magma in the first place will be tricky in a non-volcanic area.

But basically, the easiest way to multiply water is with thaw/drain/freeze cycles.

Without magma, you could also consider making your own large surface ponds to make greatest use of the seasonal freeze/thaw.  A 11x11 pool can be sustainably harvested for ~85 chunks of ice per year (leaving 36 pieces of ice wall to melt and refill the pool to 2/7 with a little extra as protection against evaporation in the initial spreading.)