An ackie is a great choice for a first monitor. Are you planning on getting just one or several? Frank Retes of the Goanna Ranch lives in Az. so you might want to look for him at a herp show. I think he lives in the Tucson. He would have some great info as well as some very nice ackies.

For an ackie, an 4' x 2' x 2' enclosure would work, but the bigger the better. These guys love room to roam. They also like to burrow in soil, so if you can provide a deep substrate(12"). You could also use a nest/humidity box as a soil replacement.It really depends on what you want to do and what kinda space you have.

My ackies get crickets and occational pinky mice. Nothing too complicated in terms of diet.

Pro exotics has a decent writeup on their site: http://www.proexotics.com/care_ackie.html

Hope that helps. Monitors are a 'thinking' kinda reptile.......you have to observe them and change things to suit their needs. Not as easy as just following a caresheet.