Forum: gaming.stackexchange.com
Tags: <minecraft-java-edition>
Title: How do I sort out this mess of a lake?
Question: I have a pretty big job on my hands here.  I've dug out a lake, problem being it's not flat anymore.  Would be best idea/method to solve a water problem on this scale!?

Answers:
sents: text: What I would do is give myself ice blocks, fill up the lake, and then break the ice blocks.
text: That's the easiest way, in my opinion.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/12553/gamewin1
score: 14
sents: text: There's no practical way of fixing this ingame.
text: The closest would be to fill in the area completely with sand, then systematically replacing each block with a water source from a bucket area, column by column
text: (you can't do this layer by layer without having nasty downwards currents ).
text: If you don't want to use external programs, I suggest claiming this area entirely to your base.
text: Make it a small and cozy underwater base or something (making a layer of water deep 1 is still a lot of work, but one level of magnitude less than clearing that mess.)
text: If you do want to use extenal editors, tools like Worldedit have what you need ( /fixwater ).
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/23/badp
score: 9
sents: text: I've a technique that I've used to fill in some large lakes; as well as a deep and wide network of canals and moats.
text: It requires some patience though.
text: Here's the solution I use to fill in large bodies of water: You will need: A couple of buckets; At least two, but more if you don't have a convenient way to replenish them.
text: Lots of easy to destroy blocks.
text: I usually use cloth because it can be broken quickly and stands out well against natural blocks, but dirt works just as well.
text: Needless to say, you cannot use sand or gravel because it is affected by gravity.
text: Make sure the area to be filled is initially dry so that you can make sure you fill it completely with spring blocks.
text: Starting from the very lowest layer, place spring blocks until the bottom layer is fully flooded.
text: Fill the next layer with your cloth blocks * ;
text: Every empty space that must be filled with water needs a cloth block instead.
text: Starting from the center of the area to be filled, remove blocks one at a time and put a water spring block in its place by targeting the edge of the adjacent cloth block.
text: Once the current layer is completely replaced with water, go back to 4.
text: *
text: You can actually optimize this a bit by placing the blocks in stripes spaced two apart.
text: Filling first the spaces, and then going from one end of the stripe to the other, removing each block and replacing it with water.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/2798/SingleNegationElimination
score: 4
sents: text: It looks like the section of lake here forms the corner of a rectangle, yes?
text: Like so: Assuming O is 'correct' water, and X is uneven water:OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO XXOOOOOOOOOOOOO XXXXXOOOOOOOOOO XXXXXXOOOXOOOOO XXXXXXOOXXOOOOO XXXXXXOOXXXXOOO XXXXXXXOXXXXXOO XXXXXXXXXXXXXXO XXXXXXXXXXXXXXO
text: In that case, this should be relatively easy: just cover the entire corner in dirt blocks, each placed one block beneath the surface of the water.
text: Once the entire corner is covered, the water level will flatten, and you can destroy the dirt blocks to fill in the bottom of the lake.
text: The only reason you should need a water bucket is if there's an entire horizontal or vertical row of blocks that's uneven.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/11689/jsnlxndrlv
score: 1
sents: text: First, fill it up with sand or something up to the water level.
text: Then pour water all on top.
text: After this dig out the sand until you get the level you wanted.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/7468/Not a Name
score: 1
sents: text: water creates a source block when the following happenX=Source waterO=created source water XO OX XOX
text: If you refill the uneven part, grab a water bucket and use the above to place minimum water it will flatten out
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/104531/Namiknight
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
You can fill up the lake with easy to destroy blocks, like ice blocks, then destroy them. 
It is proposed that straightforward in-game actions or external tools could be a solution.