Trouble creating water source

I am quite new to dwarf fortress and trying to create an underground farm. I know that I need to muddy the ground so I havd created thd chanel above the farm and placed a pond activity zone over it. Shortly after I get a notice that filling the pond has been cancelled because there is no water source.

So I find the closest water source, a murky pond that seems to be 1 layer lower than the land around it. I dig a small channel section at the edge to access the water and set a water source activity zone. I then recreate the pond but get the same message that there is no water source.

What am I doing wrong here? Would someone mind walking me through creating a water source? Thanks

Solution 1:

I have not tried the fill pond strategy to make a farm, but rather the "planned flood" technique.

In 2d...

+---!---+             RRRR
|fffffff|             RRRR
|fffffff| +----+______RRRR
|fffffff|X|wwww?__C__CRRRR
|fffffff| +----+      RRRR
+-------+             RRRR

Where:

• R is a river (with 1+ layers of water above it, for pressure)
• w is water storage, f is farm (7 f to 1 w)
• C is a channel from 1 square above
• X is a wall to dig out
• ? is a door/floodgate hooked to a switch somewhere.
• ! is a door for mud/water containment

To make the water storage:

1. dig left C, tunnel, and storage room
2. build door/floodgate at ?, and connect it to a switch
3. make sure ? is OPEN
4. Channel out right C
5. When room is 7 deep, flip switch

Now, the storage room is filled with 7 * w units of water, one unit per bit of farm!

To make your farm muddy:

1. Channel at X
2. Run out of door
3. Lock door until room is full of mud (and possibly fish)

Solution 2:

It sounds like you're doing everything right on the pond end, since they actually tried to fill it.

I'm not sure what's wrong since your dwarves should just grab it from any available non-salt body of water, and you don't even have to set an activity zone over it. If they aren't dehydrating and living off booze, then I don't see why it wouldn't work.

If you aren't sure that it's accessible, or if it's saline, then you can just build a well over it to be sure. (It'll make your dwarves happier too.) You can build wells on any open space over water, and they'll automatically purify it. Be warned that wells will deconstruct if the water that it's over freezes, so be sure the gather the parts before it thaws again.