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[Girlinhat]

Ah, I am a dirty cheater.  I used DFHack to place obsidian roof over my fort.  Apparently this counts as a natural ceiling, so when I did what I described, it produced subterranean areas.  A constructed roof, will not prevent this.  Interesting, somewhat.

[randyshipp]

I have a new question about my cistern now.  I've had three or four one-square pond activity zones now for quite some time and I very often see three or four Fill Pond jobs being carried out, so I'm pretty sure a fair number of buckets have been dumped down this hole by now.  The wiki suggests that one bucketful equals 1/7 water for one square.  I could swear that I've had more than 20 or so trips to fill the pond by now, but the second z-level of my 10x10 cistern only has 23 squares of 1/7 water in them.  Is there some leakage?  Or am I likely just not being patient enough?  I'm really hoping to create a clear water source.  I guess maybe I should figure out dwarven engineering and just pump river water in, eh?  What's a good starting point for a newbie project like that?  I haven't advanced past draining surface pools into the underground cistern...not very dwarfy.

[NecroRebel]

1/7-depth water evaporates at random intervals, and the more 1/7-depth tiles you've got in your cistern the faster the water will evaporate. You've got 1/7-depth water on top of 7/7-depth, but that second layer is still 1/7-depth and will evaporate as it normally would on solid ground. Depending on how far away the water source your dwarves are gathering from is, you might reach a point where the water in your cistern evaporates faster than your dwarves can put it in, and even if that isn't the case the fill rate will become slower and slower until you start getting 2/7-depth squares.

[randyshipp]

Solution?  Pumping or channeling and adding more pond zones?

[NecroRebel]

Something like that. You've got to add water faster to counteract the evaporation. Pumping from a larger water source will do that. So will adding more brigadiers to the bucket brigade.

[randyshipp]

I'm pleased to report that my first dwarven engineering project went well!  I built my pump with a row of two gear assemblies alongside it, with the windmill built on the far assembly, and with the middle gear assembly set to switch off whenever the cistern is 6/7 full.  It filled right up, shut off, no problem.  Yay!

Now, though, I'm getting messages like: "Nurse Tomussizir Woodcrafter cancels order Clean Patient: no water source"

What the hell?  I have two wells, constructed underground, which are definitely situated over non-frozen water squares that are 13/7 deep.  Both wells are located within the hospital burrow the nurse is assigned to, as are orthogonally adjacent access squares and all squares in a path from the hospital to the wells (not a long walk).  The well shows that it's Active.  There are spare buckets in a stockpile in the hospital.  What am I missing?

[randyshipp]

These wells, (top center) are positioned OK, right?  Any reason they wouldn't count as a "water source"?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh, I also checked that I only have orders set to prefer water from water source activity zones, not require them.  Should I make a water source zone that includes the wells?

[Fredd]

Ice can be your friend.
 A chunk of ice, left over from a excavation, is 1 water. You dump it in a area, not exposed to sunlight, it will thaw into 1 unit of water. Bucket brigades are slow, but refuse hauling is not, muwaaahs. So do some digging in a frozen river, then have them dump the ice in your cistern. Also it works in a frozen ocean. The ice is drinkable, even with a salt water flavor

[Stoup]

Did you remember to un-forbid the materials of the well?