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[L0master]

Do all aquifers have flow? (For waterwheel purposes)

[MagmaMcFry]

Aquifers have water. Moving water has flow. So if you can drain your water somewhere, waterwheels will work.

[L0master]

Aquifers have water. Moving water has flow. So if you can drain your water somewhere, waterwheels will work.

I know. The question was do all aquifiers drain off the map by default, or do i have to dig the drainage myself? Also i thought that if water tiles blink - the water body has flow.

[expwnent]

Aquifers have infinite drainage. You can drain an entire ocean into an aquifer in one frame if you do it right.

[CapnUrist]

Aquifers do not have flow in and of themselves; the water is produced by the stone, and the stone will take back any amount of water. You'll have to get the water moving from the aquifer somewhere else to give it flow.

I've successfully built dwarven water reactors on top of an aquifer, though, so you can always try that.

[UnrealJake]

You could channel the water into a water wheel [or two] and then use that power to pump the water back into the aquifer if you want. My attempt at creating power [building a water reactor under my metting hall to double as a mist generator] was a bit unsucesfull, it's filling up too slowly to produce flow, so I can't really give any designs, only a basic theory.

[L0master]

Thanks guys. I made aquifer flow into cavern and built a waterwheel on top of it. Works fine, though according to messages it stops giving power for a moment occasionaly. Well i think it's just because water underneath the wheel sometimes gets lower than 4/7.

[TolyK]

just add a bit more water by marking zone as a pond

[sdrawkcabcM tsirU]

I'm not entirely certain this works, but you could try digging out more aquifer walls to get more water being added. You'll have to channel it carefully from above, but if you make a large-ish space with lots of area adjacent to aquifer walls, and then run that water through a narrow tunnel which houses your waterwheels, out to the area where you are having it run off the map, I think you'll get more reliable flow that way.

[L0master]

you could try digging out more aquifer walls to get more water being added.

Yes, I came to it myself.

Also it appears that my cavern is actually enclosed as it starts to fill with water z-levels. It seems that soon I'll have to close and patch up my aquifer->waterwheel->waterfall->cavern system. Fun.

[Syff]

I've had plenty of success running waterwheels in a 7/7 aquifer indefinitely, without drainage anywhere.  It might need a bucket of water dropped onto it from a couple z-levels up to kick-start it, but you don't need to worry about it.  One of the best things about aquifers, really.

[gtmattz]

Why are you draining your aquifer into the caverns for power?  That has to be the most inefficient, FPS destroying way to do it!  Aquifers not only emit infinite water, they also absorb infinite water, and do so with no noticeable FPS loss.

[L0master]

Why are you draining your aquifer into the caverns for power?  That has to be the most inefficient, FPS destroying way to do it!  Aquifers not only emit infinite water, they also absorb infinite water, and do so with no noticeable FPS loss.

Waterwheel was just a primary objective of doing so. Secondary was to create waterfall through my fortress.
Otherwise i could just use method proposed by Syff with bucket kickstart, or yours (you mean two adjacent aquifiers with upper one draining into the lover one I think)

[gtmattz]

No, it is more of a 'pump water out of a hole in the aquifer with water wheels over it, into another hole in the same aquifer' situation.

[twilightdusk]

No, it is more of a 'pump water out of a hole in the aquifer with water wheels over it, into another hole in the same aquifer' situation.

to diagram

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

~ = flowing water
A = aquifier source
. = empty space
%% = pump
# = wall

Z-0
AAAAA
#####
#etc#
#####
AAAAA

Z-1
..%..
##%##
##~##
##~##
.....

water gets pumped from the top aquifier on Z-0, onto Z-1, where it flows to the bottom of the diagram, where it drains back down into the aquifier on Z-0 again. This diagram extends as far as you need it to in any direction, and need not be linear. Water wheels, wells, etc. can be placed overtop of this.