Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Acperience]

I'm currently on an island and im trying to get freshwater using a screw-pump.

I was fairly certain that my reservoir was entirely artificial but after filling it and creating a zone through an open space to check the salinity, the water was still salty. The walls of the reservoir on all levels were constructed and all floors were constructed as well. I have questions on what I did wrong.

Did I test the water correctly? In a room above the reservoir, I channeled out a tile where my well will go and created a zone including the open space and adjacent tiles. The fishing option lit up so I'm assuming the game recognizes there is reachable water underneath the open space, but the water source option stayed gray.

If a floor is muddied with saltwater, will it turn fresh water salty? (Parts of my reservoir were muddied from a pumping accident and I waited for all the water to evaporate)

I read on the wiki that water automatically turns salty if it passes a saltwater aquifer layer. The reservoir was built through 5 z-levels and I only mined out dacite and rhyolite, but would those count as aquifer layers since other tiles on the same z-level might be aquifers?
 
I modded the region raws to remove all aquifers, but does that affect the above question?

[Lytha]

I don't know, but I do know that they will use the well even if the water below it is saltwater.


To add some more confusion for the desalination issues:

Recently, I was also on a map with saltwater and an aquifer. The aquifer, once channeled into, was apparently holding saltwater.

I dug out a room in the z-level above, constructed floors and walls out of rough rocks, built a pump, channeled a hole into it from above, and I had desalinated water. Awesome, and as one would expect.


Then, however, I had the splendid idea to open this reservoir for the purpose of flooding a prospective towercap farm in the z-level below, in the area not covered by an aquifer. The towercap farm region was too large for the simple hole that I had dug into the aquifer to flood it before it would evaporate.

So, I dug a tunnel from my constructed reservoir, put a channeled tile at its end. This tunnel did not have constructed walls. I wasn't thinking very clearly at the time.

I destroyed one of the constructed walls of the reservoir and flooded the towercap farm for a couple of ingame weeks.

During this, I noticed that the water in the reservoir had turned into saltwater, apparently. A water source zone next to the well didn't show any water tiles anymore, that is.

I ignored it for the time being. Then I destroyed the entire reservoir and the pump and did build a new one with rock blocks; the water didn't touch any natural surfaces.

When it was refilled, the water was apparently still salty.


And this is something I don't understand.

[jei]

I'm currently on an island and im trying to get freshwater using a screw-pump.

I was fairly certain that my reservoir was entirely artificial but after filling it and creating a zone through an open space to check the salinity, the water was still salty. The walls of the reservoir on all levels were constructed and all floors were constructed as well. I have questions on what I did wrong.

I did the same, also got salt water. I think the wiki is wrong about this pumping purifying water, or things have changed since .31.
Some say a well will desalinate now.

[Acperience]

I posted this same thread in Dwarf mode discussions, the consensus seems to be to build a above ground cistern, where the floor of the cistern is constructed wall from the level below.

[Lord Darkstar]

The forum concensus is that wells and pumps can and do desalinate water--- so long as they are ABOVE the salt water aquifiers/sea level.

If you have a salt water aquifier ABOVE sea level, then just building a well on an ocean tile will not result in freshwater. If you don't then just putting a well on the ocean will create a fresh water well. Same is true for pumps.

If you pump water up to desalinate it, don't let it pass through the salt aquifier z level. Any water that passes THROUGH the z level of a salt water aquifier becomes salty, even if it started fresh, as this can be examined in any freshwater waterfalls as they flow from above the salt aquifier z level down.

[Double A]

The forum concensus is that wells and pumps can and do desalinate water--- so long as they are ABOVE the salt water aquifiers/sea level.

If you have a salt water aquifier ABOVE sea level, then just building a well on an ocean tile will not result in freshwater. If you don't then just putting a well on the ocean will create a fresh water well. Same is true for pumps.

If you pump water up to desalinate it, don't let it pass through the salt aquifier z level. Any water that passes THROUGH the z level of a salt water aquifier becomes salty, even if it started fresh, as this can be examined in any freshwater waterfalls as they flow from above the salt aquifier z level down.

So, could you theoretically just build a massive staircase right next to the ocean and plop a well next to it on the top?

[FuzzyZergling]

Theoretically, yes.

[Double A]

Or a giant walkway... with a giant room at the end... and a hatch cover at the beginning... and nobles rooms...

I have to reflect on this.