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[MatterStorm]

First post, so sorry if its already been answered. But:

I was going to make irrigation for an underground tree farm, I had already discovered the first cave level, so I made stairs up to the brook right above it, and when I was ready, channeled the floor tile to allow it in to the room. Now, I did remember to forbid all the stone in the farm chamber, and I put doors in the front, so water wouldn't flood the fortress. But, I didn't remember to add a flood gate and connect it to a lever so I could stop the irrigation, so now, the whole room is flooded, and I can't stop it. I already tried constructing 2 walls above the hole and "caving it in", but that just caused the walls to deconstruct and drop granite on the bottom stair. I've also tried blocking it off by coming from the side, but I don't think that's really possible, because you have to build in the water, which you can't do (at least as far as I know).

So, if you have any idea of what I should try next, please tell.

[Sphalerite]

Call that room a cistern, and dig a new farm.

[Girlinhat]

You have four readily available options.  1) DFHack is a cheat system that lets you add and remove liquids.  You can remove the water, or add obsidian to block the flow.  2) Drain it faster than it floods in.  Pumps placed around the desired location can drain water MUCH faster than it flows in.  A few of these should keep it dry long enough to get a hatch cover build over that stairway.  3) Drop rock on it.  Natural walls, when dropped, retain their shape, while constructed walls deconstruct.  So go above the water, isolate a line of rock, and drop it into the flow.  This one is probably your best option, honestly.  4) Drain it elsewhere, by making more, better-designed drainage tunnels that will push the water elsewhere.  Remember that you can dig within 1 tile of the map's edge, and then carve fortifications there, so that liquids will pass through the fortifications and off the map edge.

5) The Dwarfy method, is to dump magma on it, turning it into obsidian that can then be mined like rock.

[MatterStorm]

You have four readily available options.  1) DFHack is a cheat system that lets you add and remove liquids.  You can remove the water, or add obsidian to block the flow.  2) Drain it faster than it floods in.  Pumps placed around the desired location can drain water MUCH faster than it flows in.  A few of these should keep it dry long enough to get a hatch cover build over that stairway.  3) Drop rock on it.  Natural walls, when dropped, retain their shape, while constructed walls deconstruct.  So go above the water, isolate a line of rock, and drop it into the flow.  This one is probably your best option, honestly.  4) Drain it elsewhere, by making more, better-designed drainage tunnels that will push the water elsewhere.  Remember that you can dig within 1 tile of the map's edge, and then carve fortifications there, so that liquids will pass through the fortifications and off the map edge.

5) The Dwarfy method, is to dump magma on it, turning it into obsidian that can then be mined like rock.

Thanks, gonna try #3 right now

Edit: Actually, there's not much room, so I don't really know how. I think I'll just use DFHack, because I'd have to build in the water to make the pumps, and draining it would probably take WAY too long.

[Sphalerite]

You have four readily available options.  1) DFHack is a cheat system that lets you add and remove liquids.  You can remove the water, or add obsidian to block the flow.  2) Drain it faster than it floods in.  Pumps placed around the desired location can drain water MUCH faster than it flows in.  A few of these should keep it dry long enough to get a hatch cover build over that stairway.  3) Drop rock on it.  Natural walls, when dropped, retain their shape, while constructed walls deconstruct.  So go above the water, isolate a line of rock, and drop it into the flow.  This one is probably your best option, honestly.  4) Drain it elsewhere, by making more, better-designed drainage tunnels that will push the water elsewhere.  Remember that you can dig within 1 tile of the map's edge, and then carve fortifications there, so that liquids will pass through the fortifications and off the map edge.

5) The Dwarfy method, is to dump magma on it, turning it into obsidian that can then be mined like rock.

Thanks, gonna try #3 right now

Just remember - it has to be natural stone walls.  Not anything you've constructed.  Constructed walls will deconstruct into their raw materials when they collapse.

[Girlinhat]

Since you're in a cavern, it's easy.  Trying this above-ground gets more complicated, as the only way to make natural walls above-ground is to cast obsidian, but at that point it's easier to just cast the whole pond instead!

[MatterStorm]

Ya, it's not in the cavern, I made a room after I found the cavern, and the room is 2 levels below the river/brook and 3 below the surface. Just gonna use DFHack, if you didn't read the edit.

[Girlinhat]

Actually you don't need to build in the water to do the pumps, which is the whole point of using pumps.  You build two pieces of floor above the water, and the pump there, so that it hands over the water.  Pumps pull from the Z level under them, and deposit water on the same level.  So, you could just make some floor around the desired dry point, and keep the pumps running.

And don't doubt the power of a pump.  It pushes liquids far FAR faster than any flow of liquids, letting you stop the flow of a river, or the entire ocean, with sufficient pumps.