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[Crabe]

Hey, I was just wondering is there any way to get fresh water on a site with only salt water.  It's not on the beach or anything.

Not that it matters now that I just had a massive tantrum spiral, but I still want to know.

P.S. First Post! Ever! Been here for a while just never registered or anything.

[stonemt]

you have to run the water through a pump and then never let it touch natural ground/walls... so basicly you have to bild a realy big fishtank for it

[Protactinium]

If you pump water using a Screw Pump, it desalinates the water. As soon as that water comes into contact with anything again, though, it's all salty.

Fake Edit: Bah, just beaten.

[Crabe]

Ok, thanks.

I'd tried digging a hole in the ground via channeling, but it didn't fill up when it rained.

Now to build my population up again so I can build my fishtank thing!

[MrWiggles]

Water only catches on murky pool tiles.

[Albedo]

read the wiki "salt water"

[Grendus]

The easiest solution - Booze.

[Albedo]

Not a solution, depending.

Won't help wounded, but worse, you also can't order dwarves to start a bucket brigade from a salt-water source - it just doesn't recognize it as valid.  And buckets are used for a variety of nifty tricks. 

[RandomNumberGenerator]

This is what you have to do:

1) Construct an enclosed area with walls. The wall MUST be constructed. The material it is constructed out of does not matter though; you can use Rock Salt if you wish.
2) Construct floors on the inside of the enclosed area. Like the walls, these MUST be constructed, not dug out.
3) Build a pump so that it pumps out of a river/pond/aquifer/whatever into the enclosed area.  This is required.  Pumps are the only way to actually desalinate water; the walls/floor only prevent it from resalinating.
4) Pump the water from the source into your reservoir. You can use complex machinery for a continuous source of water, or use a dwarf to pump just what you need into the reservoir. Either way, the water in your holding tank will be fresh and drinkable, assuming you built it right.

[Albedo]

RNG (or anyone who knows) - question - if you do build a continuous pump reservoir, and it drains out - at some point that drainage will (in most situations) come into contact with non-construct walls/floors.  Does the contamination work back "upstream", contaminating the whole system, or just downstream? Is it only not across levels?

What's the scoop?

[Niyazov]

In my last game (40d15) I was on a saltwater map and dug a well straight into the aquifer about 15 tiles away from the beach. The dwarves used it for injuries, drinking and filling fishtanks without any complaints. Anyone else encounter this?

[Albedo]

Technically, there's no such thing as a "saltwater map".  There are saltwater biomes, and freshwater biomes.

If the aquifer was in freshwater, no prob.

[snelg]

Last I checked (quite a while ago though), if you embark near an ocean, it'll turn everything into saltwater (at least your dwarfs don't want to drink it). Pumping it would be the only way, though I can't remember having to construct floor or walls... Interesting thing about that well, will have to try that sometime. 

[madrain]

In my last game (40d15) I was on a saltwater map and dug a well straight into the aquifer about 15 tiles away from the beach. The dwarves used it for injuries, drinking and filling fishtanks without any complaints. Anyone else encounter this?

If this is indeed the case then I will be extremely sore at the wiki for leading me astray so often.  :p

[Niyazov]

Technically, there's no such thing as a "saltwater map".  There are saltwater biomes, and freshwater biomes.

If the aquifer was in freshwater, no prob.

The dwarves refused to use the standing water on the surface in the same biome, but water out of the well was acceptable.