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[notfood]

Any hints in how to deal with them? Most iron is now found in sandstone layers which are almost all aquifiers. The only way I manage to get a few is to search for very steep areas. Any other solution?

[wuphonsreach]

Magma (embark on a site with a volcano).

Freezing (embark somewhere where exposed water freezes at least part of the year).

Straddle the embark area across multiple biomes if at all possible.

[EveryZig]

If you are going with freezing, keep in mind that while possible, channeling through a freezing aquifer is ludicrously deadly, because your miners tend to walk into the space that they just channeled out and die instantly when it freezes.

[Lagslayer]

Carve out a drainage system below it and make channels every few steps so the water doesn't get too high. You could also try channeling out the level with the iron from above and drain it all at once afterward. It's slow, but you should be able to slowly get the ore out of there and smooth the stone so you can progress. You could do the same thing with screw pumps, but that takes even longer.

[Triaxx2]

Try some exploratory mining and see if you can find an iron vein running through the Aquifer.

[Trickysticks]

Or mod out Aquifers by removing the tag from Sandstone ^_^

[Reelyanoob]

Or mod out stone, so the ground is nothing BUT iron

[CapnUrist]

That's odd. My last two fortresses had tons of iron stuffed into chalk layers. (It would have been a perfect location but for the lack of any fuel stones and scarce trees)

[Squirrelloid]

If you are going with freezing, keep in mind that while possible, channeling through a freezing aquifer is ludicrously deadly, because your miners tend to walk into the space that they just channeled out and die instantly when it freezes.

Rather than channeling, designate downstairs above the aquifer and up stairs in the aquifer, then channel the stairs.  Because the upstairs are still inside due to the downstairs, it won't freeze right away.  Because the up stairs will fill with water, you won't stand in it to channel the stairs away, thus avoiding being frozen when it unfreezes.

But yes, this is one of the things i really hate about the post-.40d channeling, it makes it a lot harder to safely designate in a variety of situations.

OP: Even if the layer with magnetite is an aquifer, magnetite won't be, so at worst you just lose the edges.  Non-magnetite can be found in igneous extrusive as well.

[blue sam3]

Pumps. Lotsa pumps. Once you've got a sufficiently large square held empty by them, send a couple of dwarves down to build a wall around it and dig out the iron ore.

[Anathema]

Carefully planned and controlled cave-ins are the safest most satisfying most dwarven way to do it, in my opinion. You have to plan on clearing 3 levels nowadays though, up to two actual aquifer layers and the level below which the lower aquifer also floods.

That thread can best be summarized by the image below, which really explains it all:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I prefer however to suspend the plug from above with a support (rather than from the side with a constructed floor), since the support can be linked to a lever to initiate the cave-in safely with no dwarves nearby.

[Lytha]

I think that most of these suggestions might destroy the iron, won't they? I'd suggest to just channel out of the aquifer around the hematite vein, smooth the aquifer walls so that they stop leaking, and then mining your ore.

[BigD145]

I think that most of these suggestions might destroy the iron, won't they?

No.

[Lytha]

So, you smash some soil layers onto a metal vein in the middle of your aquifer, and the aquifer is removed, but the ore remains? Interesting.

I'd still do it as I wrote above, because it requires more micromanagement and should look prettier when done.  :p

[Squirrelloid]

if your goal is just to get at the sweet sweet iron, you don't even need to deal with teh aquifer, just avoid mining the edges of the magnetite cluster.

If your goal is to breach the aquifer, you can go through the magnetite cluster to the layer beneath.

If you really must have every last tile of iron, controlled collapse is the best way to plug aquifers.  Remember, it won't crush full rock layers, so don't mine the iron under your collapsing soil.