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[Cespinarve]

I cannot get desalinization to work. I understand that to get water that isn't laced with salt (or listed as stagnant), you have to pump it into a cistern made of built stone, and it cannot touch and natural stone.

Here is my cistern:



Water is pumped from the bottom into the top. The top is completely built stone:



This includes the floor the door is sitting on.



This is the pump one z-level above. It is surrounded by built stone, however, the pump itself is NOT on a built floor, I didn't think it would let me build it on a built floor. However, checking the bucket in the well shows that the water is still "laced with salt. Why? What is not working? I made sure that the bucket contained no water when I built the well.

[Sphalerite]

It's still a bit of a mystery, but it appears that in addition to not being allowed to touch any natural stone, the water cannot be allowed to occupy any spaces which have ever been flagged as salty.  That is, if water ever occupies a space that ever contained salt water, it will be salty.  It also appears that underground areas may be intrinsically flagged as salty, so even if you build a cistern there out of completely artificial materials, water in those spaces will be salty.

I have only ever had luck when building completely elevated cisterns, not only made completely out of constructed rock but also not occupying space that has ever contained rock or salt water.  This may not always be required, but seems to always be sufficient to make it work.

[Alem]

Your set up looks right, the only suggestion I can think of is remove the door to the cistern and build a wall there too. Pumps can be made on floored areas but that shouldn't be necessary. And I swear that pump looks upside down to me (for your declared arrangement), as that looks like the light tile over your cistern.

[blizzerd]

make a water tower, as in, a tower with a bassin elevated from the ground, then pump it in with a pumpstack or bucket brigade

[Cespinarve]

Well, y science verdict has shown that a water tower, entirely artificial, works. I also built an underground cistern from scratch- no door, and the pump was built on Constructed floors. This has also produced clean water. I am now ripping out my whole cistern and rebuilding, to see if I can science away any salt water residue, waiting until it has dried, of course.

[Cespinarve]

Alright, well, my tests are finally complete, minus six dwarves who died because I stupidly removed a floodgate without really thinking about it.

Anyways, tearing out the cistern does nothing. I replaced everything, but with no success- if a tile has ever had any salt water, it won't desalinate. But underground cisterns do work if you build it right, building surrounding the pump with built blocks.

[tolkafox]

What tileset is that? It reminds me of Avernum.

[Lytha]

The information about the entirely artificial cisterns is a false rumor.

In my case, I've dug a tunnel leading down a couple of z-levels from my saltwater aquifer; at the bottom, I installed a depressurizer (it has to flow diagonally), then I pump it into a 2 z-level deep cistern.

None of the walls involved is constructed except the floor tiles (I don't want any trees to grow there). I smoothed these natural walls though, because I think they look better that way.

The water past the pump is completely clean and desalinated.



Anway, don't worry about the water being salty. Just install a well and the dwarves will use that as the water source anyway.

[danaris]

The tile the pump is on has to be a constructed floor, too. 

I made this mistake in my most recent fort, then had to drain my cistern, construct the 2 tiles (it's fed by 2 pumps), and fill it back up again.

[DrKillPatient]

What tileset is that? It reminds me of Avernum.

Mayday Green, I believe.

[Cespinarve]

The information about the entirely artificial cisterns is a false rumor.

In my case, I've dug a tunnel leading down a couple of z-levels from my saltwater aquifer; at the bottom, I installed a depressurizer (it has to flow diagonally), then I pump it into a 2 z-level deep cistern.

None of the walls involved is constructed except the floor tiles (I don't want any trees to grow there). I smoothed these natural walls though, because I think they look better that way.

The water past the pump is completely clean and desalinated.



Anway, don't worry about the water being salty. Just install a well and the dwarves will use that as the water source anyway.

It's not the water source, it is that you can't make lye if the buckets are full of salt water, or stagnant water. Dwarves only empty buckets that have just "water" in them.

[Lytha]

Sounds like another rumour. How about ordering them to do some milking/cheesemaking or send the buckets to the Trade Depot? That should get them emptied for sure.

But yes, lye making is annoying. My issue with it is that I have a permanent bucket brigade up and running to cast some ice, and they didn't hesitate to seize the buckets that were just filled with fresh lye, too.

[Saiko Kila]

Sounds like another rumour. How about ordering them to do some milking/cheesemaking or send the buckets to the Trade Depot? That should get them emptied for sure.

Emptied of what - lye or water? Because only buckets containing both of these simultaneously are unusable for making soap. Lye making creates a lot of buckets filled with both stagnant water and lye, and they are not used anymore. So if emptied you lose lye.

It's a bug similar to golden salve thing - military dwarves claim vials containing golden salve (great value, much better than these lousy steel flasks) and then fill them with booze. Maybe they are able to drink it (not sure) but these vials are hard to sell, dwarves won't let them go and it needs a lot of micromanagement. Of course emptying them would be a waste.