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[runlvlzero]

Ya, aquifers can be a boon or a plague. I like having a ready source of water, but make sure to bring plenty stone and wood to break it.

Also the double slit method is pretty easy just really time consuming and takes 2 or 3 tries before you can figure out the pattern that works for you (there's slight variations on it)... and you can shoot your stuff in the foot with that method real fast if you don't do it right.

I personally like having a volcano tube go through the aquifer for me ) but I don't have the patience to deal with volcano slopes much.

Also if your looking to build down into the caverns, aquifers can be ugly and really hinder fort, wagon ramp design, the little whole you need to punch through becomes much more... especially if its multilevel.

Thankfully even vanilla DF with a non-edited world gen provides plenty of non-aquifer embarks that have plenty of cool stuff =P

[ThatAussieGuy]

After skimming over the aquifer wiki page (again), I was suddenly struck by the following idea ... water dropping out of the bottom of an aquifer, running along a channel turning water wheels.  Lots and lots of water wheels.  With the last wheel or four powering a pump stack to shunt that water right back up and into the aquifer it came from.

Congratulations, you've just invented a more complicated version of the Dwarven Water Reactor. I say "more complicated" because the aquifer isn't needed at all.

You've made a grave mistake here.  Aquifers make PERFECT reactors.  Channel down into one from above so you have a pool.  Build waterwheels over it and a screwpump.  Pump once MANUALLY and then remove the pump.  You now have a never-ending flow of water between the aquifer breachpoints that will power your fort with power that never fluctuates or stops. No refilling, no slowing down, just constant turning.

[NW_Kohaku]

Actually, if you want the TRUE DORF method of aquifer breaching, I have used a technique when I am basically just making a throw-away site I was going to delete after checking what the minerals and caverns look like.

I call it the "Chicken Run Technique".

It goes like this: Dig up/down stairs straight down as fast as you can.  Dig faster than the water can trickle down and drown you.  Hope you hit the caverns, and that you can divert the water into the caverns before you drown.  Get the water from the aquifer to infinitely drain into the caverns, and just go back up the stairs to a point below the aquifer and start building from there.

There's a certain minimum skill level of miner you need to even try it, however.

[malroth]

and if your chicken run method fails to hit a cavern before drowning you've got the opportunity to sink 6 more exploratory shafts

Edit:  Makes me think up a really easy method,  build a temporary surface fort out of wood till you get a vampire,  give the vampire a pick and brute force your way to the caverns.

[krenshala]

After skimming over the aquifer wiki page (again), I was suddenly struck by the following idea ... water dropping out of the bottom of an aquifer, running along a channel turning water wheels.  Lots and lots of water wheels.  With the last wheel or four powering a pump stack to shunt that water right back up and into the aquifer it came from.

Congratulations, you've just invented a more complicated version of the Dwarven Water Reactor. I say "more complicated" because the aquifer isn't needed at all.

Or, you can just let the water flow off the map via a cavern or map-edge fortification. You don't need to return it to the aquifer. DF aquifers are infinite sources of water.

Yes, its a DWR.  I knew that. My point was using the aquifer instead of a bucket brigade, and doing the dwarfly thing and making it needlessly complicated. With the bonus points for " recycling " the water back into the aquifer.