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[Brian]

I'm trying to create my first indoor waterfall.  I want to give dwarves happy thoughts in a lavish statue garden, and the mist would be great.

I have a brook on my highest Z level (excluding the sky of course).  There is a natural outdoor waterfall for that brook that drops 5 or 6 Z levels.  I thought great.  I'd take the water from the brook at the upper Z level, pipe it underground, let it fall through my statue garden, then send it back to the brook, one Z level above the lower part of the brook.

The issue I am facing is that the water above the indoor waterfall is flowing faster than the water below the waterfall.  It seems that no matter how I pipe it, the room will flood because my drainage pipe will be all 7's on one side before the water makes it even a third of the way back to the brook.

How can I decrease my inflow so that my outflow can keep up?  My inflow is only one square wide, my outflow is three.  I've been trying all sorts of crap...


Edit: Bit more info.  Infloor is one square wide.  After falling two Z levels it is split into 3 for a nice waterfall effect on the Z level below, and the level below that they are all pooled together.

[awdball]

The best way is to use pressure to your advantage. It would actually work better if you had your out flow start at 2 z-levels tall with the bottom at the same level as the lower level of your brook outflow.

But another way would be if you had a mechanical power source say from a water wheel at the top of your waterfall (side view):

Code: [Select]

##########
##### <-     ----- Pump to re-pressurize the water and push it over the wall
      OO357  ----- existing outflow blocked by a built wall
##########

AWDBall

[Veroule]

Eliminate the drainage issue entirely with a pump.  The pump will suck a square dry even if there is no place for the water to go.  So you place the pump to suck the water from your drain area and surround the rest of it with a wall.  The only thing you have to do is get power to it.

[Doppel]

Eliminate the drainage issue entirely with a pump.  The pump will suck a square dry even if there is no place for the water to go.  So you place the pump to suck the water from your drain area and surround the rest of it with a wall.  The only thing you have to do is get power to it.

So the pump makes the water practically vanish because the water itself can't go anywhere? Am i reading this right? (would solve many problems i am having currently)

[Sappho]

I thought that trick doesn't work anymore?

[Shades]

How can I decrease my inflow so that my outflow can keep up?  My inflow is only one square wide, my outflow is three.  I've been trying all sorts of crap...

Assuming you have some way of stopping the upper flow you could then rig up a pressure plate -> floodgate which opens when the water level on the plate is below some number, this will let you modify flow from 1/7 to 7/7 for the input stream. Make sure the pressure plate is after the floodgate of course

so input -> flood gate -> pressure plate -> waterfall -> output

If you can't stop the input to set that up then widening your output pipes are probably the best option.

[Quift]

The easiest way to solve this problem, without resorting to bugs. is to have a larger reservoir beneath the fall.

I had this problem myself before adn managed to get around it by building a deeper drainage. that way it starts to stack in the vertical drainpipe, which creates pressure, and teleports it away.

another solution is to have a larger reservoar albeit also with the deeper vertical shaft. and the have a pumpsystem operating in closed circuit from the bottom of the reservoar and up again.

I normally try to drain the water directly either into the chasm or into the pits of hell instead of reusing, relying on a constant watersource.
wasteful but easier to build.

[Soadreqm]

The pump-water-disappear-thingy doesn't work in my fort at least, so I would suggest building your sewers deeper, if possible. Letting the water-to-be-disposed fall a few extra levels should naturally pressurize the sewer tunnel, making the flow faster.

Code: [Select]

(side view)
instead of this:    this:

#~#######           #~#######
#~~~->out           #~#######
#########           #~#######
                    #~#######
                    #~~~->out
                    #########
If this isn't feasible, speeding the flow with pumps should also work. I would suggest powering it with windmills. Waterwheels usually work fine, but if they don't, everyone will drown.

[Alaern]

If you have a problem with water input/output, you may want to start draining the water for your waterfall with another pump. Single pump shouldn't be able to throw more water into your fortress than another will be able to drain away.

Code: [Select]

Side view
#7777#########
#7777## PP7 #
#7777777### #
########### #This way pump itself blocks extra water flow and prevents any possible u-bend problems.