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[Jingles]

Ok I have one aboveground temporary cistern that I built to pump water in when I began my fortress.  It works fine but is above ground and not intended or designed to be permanent.  This is my water source.

I built a huge system that pumps water from the salt water river into a constructed pipe that then falls a bunch of z levels to get to underground cisterns that I dug out then constructed over.

Code: [Select]

An elevation veiw of an example of what Im talking about

ppF________  #######
ww#########  #######
###########  #######
###########  #######
###########__________  <------ cistern full of water

w-river
#-stone
pp-the pump
F- is a constructed fortification it pumps through.

Still it does not read as a water source.  Even though its purified and runs over constructions. 

So my question is does the roof also have to be constructed if its a pressurized system or does everything the water could potentially reach (like dug stairs hanging over it or whatever)?

Or if I built a constructed wall on a dirt floor that it falls pass in the pipe will that contaminate it (I think I channeled it all before I built the down pipe but I might have missed a spot)? 

Will just falling period contaminate it with salt?  Is this only with pressurized water (my levels are controlled by automatic floodgates, set to keep it around 5 but areas near the beginning of the pipe easily reach 7)?

If I ran a pump at the bottom of the pipe to re-purify the water and alter the pressure to the appropriate level would that fix the problem?  Or would I still have to replace all the roof with constructed tiles somehow (assuming thats the issue)?

Or maybe it's because the cistern was de purified accidentally on the first run, I drained it completely fixed the problem let it dry out so there was no water and then refilled it.  Do I have to deconstruct everything and then reconstruct it?

[ext0l]

I think the walls also need to be constructions. Also, just build a well, since wells de-salinate water. Somehow.

[Minnakht]

Yes, if you let saltwater into a cistern, it'll stop counting as desalinated FOREVER.

To circumvent this, just build a second cistern just next to the first one, and pump water from the first one to the second. It should save you the effort of deconstucting the first cistern, but you might not have space. You could even just make the second cistern a small one, more like 1 z-level high and not even 10x10 - it'll be constantly refilled from the large one anyway.

Or, yeah, wells work too. Unless you need open access to the water.

[BigD145]

Also, just build a well, since wells de-salinate water. Somehow.

Wells are entirely constructed as are its buckets. Constructed materials suck the salt right out.

/nonotreally

[billybobfred]

The well only picks up the water, not the salt.

Obviously.

[morgoththegreat]

The well only picks up the water, not the salt.

Obviously.

Actually, the well picks up the water and the salt, but the dwarves are so happy to have seen a completely sublime well that they forget about the salt.

(Put a well over the ocean, it draws buckets of salty water but they drink it anyway)

[Jingles]

So there is no way to change it back, (Im prepared to do a lot of work if deconstructing and reconstrucing is the way to go Ill do it.)?  Bleh.  Also the wells don't read as water sources will the use them as one anyway if I set them as one?  If so then that's ok.  I'll learn to live with it.

[Minnakht]

Again - you can just make a 1x5x5 or so cistern next to your current one, and as long as the new one is new, it'll work when you pump water from the first one to it.

[Jingles]

Unfortunately due to design constraints that is not an option.

I think Ill try deconstruction the floors since that is what has the mud on them.  If I just replace them it might work?  Its only a few hundred.

[Minnakht]

I'm afraid it's everything you need to reconstruct, so the walls go too.

Just build the smaller room in the top z-level of the cistern. Water pressure might cause problems, so if you added a small depressurizer in the... say, how high is the cistern now?

[Jingles]

The cistern is 15 lvl's below the intake pipe.

If the well trick still works I'd use it though, because that was my intention anyways.  But they dont read as water sources so I cant tell.  Im doing a floor test in a small section of pipe, I hope you're wrong about the walls needing to be replaced.

[Minnakht]

Maybe like this.

Z-level of the river
Z-level of the highest cistern level
Z-level of the cistern's floor

[Jingles]

99 is river
100 is highest point of cistern works (the pipe takes from the river then drops it down 15 z)
85 is the level of the cistern

[Sphalerite]

But they dont read as water sources so I cant tell.

Wells and water source zones are separate functions.

Water source zones are zones you set to tell dwarves where to gather water without a well.  These need to be set above/adjacent to fresh water.  Wells do not need to have a water source zone set around them.  They will work even if placed over salt water.  They don't actually turn the water fresh, but dwarves don't seem to mind drinking salt water so long as it came from a well.

So far the only time I've seen desalination work has been when using a completely constructed cistern which was completely above the natural level of water and nearby terrain, elevated above the ground, and not using or touching any natural terrain.  It also appears from the limited testing I've done that if a map tile has once had salt water in it, any water in that tile will forever be salty.  This contagion spreads through adjacent tiles of water, so if you let your fresh water cistern overflow into salt water, the entire cistern can become forever contaminated with salt, even if you tear it down and rebuilt it.

[Minnakht]

So, the floor is on level 85, and the cistern extends 15 levels up from there? Then the topmost level of the cistern is utterly empty.

Seeing as the cistern itself is huge, being past 10x10 in floor size terms, you could build a purely constructed structure hanging from the ceiling there and pump water into it. I think. The access point for water would be on level 101, though... If it's above ground, then you would have to make a walled-off area, if it isn't, then it's fine, right?

Say...

Level 100:

Code: [Select]

######D#########
000000F000000000
000000F######000
00000FF#7777#000
000000%X7777#000
00000FF#7777#000
000000F#7777#000
000000F######000
0000000000000000
0000000000000000
#s are walls, Fs are floors, % is passable pump tile, X is impassable pump tile, 0 is open space with water on the level below. The first string of #s is one of your cistern's walls. D is the access door to it.
Side view:

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###########IIII####
00000000F%######000
77777777777777777777
I is your new water source zone.

I think that if the small room's underside gets wet with splashes from the Z-level below, nothing bad will happen.

Or just deconstruct everything.

My experience:


Left panel: Top level of a 9x7x2 microcline cistern. It is contaminated. It used to be not contaminated, but I accidentally caved something in on the pump before and it deconstructed, letting water on onto the natural black sand.

Middle panel: Kimberlite pump pumped water into a secondary microcline 2xsomex1 cistern. It is not contaminated.

Right panel: The 3x1 hole above water has a 5x3 zone centered on it, and it has 12 water source tiles. The hole leads to above the secondary, 2xsomex1 cistern.