Ok so after a few months of reading, and a lifetime of wanting i finally took the plunge on sunday and webt down to LLL and bought a water monitor with my fiance. I had been wanting a water monitor for at least 10 years since the first time i went down to the old Prehistoric Pets when they were in Chino and saw their huge pong setup and their big water swimming through and basking on the ledge. Realizing i counldnt care for one, I always put them off and off and got into big snakes and cars and girls. At one point me and my father had a 4 1/2ft and a 6 ft green iguana, that were great, but i dont have to tell you guys here an iguana is no monitor. I finally believe i am in a place to care for one of these guys so i took the plunge. Ive been reading every page i could about husbandry, behavior yada yada yada and would like to hear from people that have had them and have experience with them so i knw im doing ok to start so lets start to break it down.

- 4x18x18 tank
- 50% decomposed granite 50% virgin topsoil mix for substrate
- paint roller tray for a water bowl/pool.
- flat bark "cave"
- 4 level "Retes" stack
- heating bulbs
- food dish


I have about 5-6" of substrate, that is kept mist, but not wet and seems to hold a burrow,shape pretty well. Ive had the tank set up for about a week without an animal in it so i can make sure everything is good which paid off because the first one or two combos of everything i had were miserably off.

The retes stacks are 12x10 (12x12 with 2x2s as risers, creating a 12x10 ledge space) with a 4" hole cut in the middle for mobility through the levels. I have a 95w dome bulb for a heat light creating a 130w basking spot ontop of the highest level and just around 85-88 degrees on the lowest level on the sand. Ambient temps during the day are between 85-90* and ambients are 82-85 at night. I have two thermometers in the cage at all times measuring basking spot temp and ambient temp of the "cold" side of the tank. A 95w light during the day and 100W during the night are used for heat, the white light is usually on around 14 hours a day (10am-midnight) when the white lights are shut off and red lights are turned on, which so far have just about perfectly mirrored the white light temps. The paint roller trough has been working flawlessly i believe for a water bowl. At the deepest its deep enough for him to "swim" and he can walk up it as far as he wants letting him being in whatever level of water is most comfortable for him. He spent his whole first night laying in the shallow water right under the light soaking and drinking. I have maybe a 5" wide 2 1/2" deep circle heavy plastic bowl buried into the sand for feeders, which are superworms and crickets, dusted with calcium with D3. He didnt eat on Sunday, but he started eating a few worms and a cricket or two Monday afernoon. He usually hangs out either in the water, running back and forth digging, or on the ledge in the rete stack that is about 105-110.

Here are some picture please let me know what you think, in the picture of the tank i hadnt build the rete stack yet, i was still focusing on ambient temps/substate soil to water mix

View on the shelf


View under the bark "cave" that he dug into/under, you can kinda see the food bowl too


Monet, my new baby, measured 14 5/8" fom nose to tip of tail