Not sure if I am missing something... but managing the early game water byproduct/loop prior to research for building fluid tanks and being able to connect it to the offshore pump to control the level seems a bit broken. I felt like I should have had a tank as part of the starting inventory. Unless there is some trick I am missing, It seems unnecessarily annoying to connect / disconnect the water pump a number of times to manage water levels in the pipes. (but am still able to slowly progress)

I found an elegant solution (SPOILER).... If I choose to make a separate isolated loop of dirty water and clean water between just certain machines they will perfectly balance each other out without requiring new water pumped into the system. :)

The flow control mod; https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Flow%20Control makes this much easier