Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i guess this goes mostly for the nile and water monitor keepers here, but what kind of pump do you prefer to use to keep the water clean and minimize the need for water changes? i'm kind of between a bucket filter and an internal one, but i have heard good and bad things about both of them.
thanks,
-jake
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"I live for the nights I'll never remember with the friends I will never forget"

Filters do not work for properly set up monitors. The reason is, they crap everyday, then throw in all the stuff from the rest of the cage in the water. So dump and fill is the only way. At least the only practical way.

For instance in my mertens cage. I have a medium pool, 3' by 4' by 2' deep. It has a two inch drain. They throw so much substrate in, it plugs up a two inch pipe. So I have to install a backflush system to unplug the pipes. Cheers

damn. well, i'm glad i asked before i wasted a small fortune.
-jake
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"I live for the nights I'll never remember with the friends I will never forget"

Just a tip:

Buy a siphon from an auto-parts store (i use a hand-pump style), and a brine shrimp net from Petco or some such.

Use the net to fish large particles or waste/substrate. These nets are so fine that you can actually collect quite a bit of substrate (mud) from the water.

Then use the siphon to remove the majority of the water. Its now much easier to remove pool/tub/whatever without risking spillage (ie, contamination).

I usually give mine a lil scrubbing with an EXTREMELY diluted alcohol/water mixture, just to ensure that bacteria and other gunk dosnt cling to the sides. Then I wash out about 10-20 times (because IM paranoid, lol) with clean, extremely hot water.

Altogether, it takes me a total of about 20 minutes to change out my guys water, which I do twice a day. The longest part is waiting for the water to siphon through.

Note: I say use the net, because I tried using the siphon without removing at least SOME of the waste/substrate and it got clogged after 2 pumps. Pretty much a waste of like $15 after that, lol.

I just use one of those flood pumps ($60 Home Depot?)...attach a hose, plug it in and dump it into the pond. It drains it to 1/4 inch quite fast. I also use a pretty powerful little sponge filter in there that really keeps it pretty clean, I only do a complete water change once a week (clean the sponge filter every day or two). I use a fish net for the bigger chunks of stuff. It keeps pretty clear with minimal effort.

Some large koi are great for eating the poop chunks too (if the monitor doesnt eat them haha).

I dont worry about bacteria for my monitors (I do for myself). When I change the water I just wipe out the pond with some paper towel quickly and fill it up. I figure anything that readily eats rotten meat will be fine with a little funky water.

Tom

Rotting meat is one thing- its still meat.

Fecal matter is NOT meat; in this case its the result of eatting meat/rotten stuff.... and I imagine its gotta be pretty nasty stuff.

Whether theyre immune to their own bacteria and what not I dont know, but keepers should be WAY careful with that stuff, as its some foul stuff, especially if its been sitting in warm water for awhile.

Just a thought.

oh it's all foul stuff...no argument there. I never said my logic makes sense, haha.

I must say I commend your committment NK, cool stuff. Plus when you simply say, ok it's gonna take me 40-60 min a day to properly maintain this awesome predator, it's not so bad.

That way you get a lot of interaction time too. I am sure your nile is getting quite used to you lurking about haha....maaaaan here HE is again messin with my nice water!

"HE MUST NOT KNOW WHO HE IS MESSING WITH !!"...sorry that's what I always think of with my crazy BT when I have to mess with his enclosure.

Tom

Hes a sneaky lil bastard... digs tunnels everywhere, and when i come in the cage he dips underground.

I gotta keep an eye out cause he ALWAYS comes up next to the water and eyes my fingers. I should use the glove, but i havent been using it lately.... really should stop that, lol.

Hes never tried to outright bite me, only if Im GRABBING him and attempting to move him, and even then its not as bad as it could be Im sure. For the first 6 months or so of his life, I could hand feed him small fish by holding the tail and dangling it. He would come slinking out, or flop off his basking perch, and come waddling over to snatch it out of my fingers- what surprised me was that he only ever once got my finger, and that was because he was very excited by a wiggling fishy, hehe....

but, after awhile, he got too big for that, could do too much damage, so I stopped it. Now I tend to give him time to get his food, providing it twice a day and removing the uneattens(at least like 10-15 mins, depending how long it takes em to thaw, haha). I change the water twice a day (like 20 mins each time). Other than that hes pretty low maintenance- I like to give him alot of privacy, so when I am around him hes more curious than he is annoyed- he knows me being there means A. food, or B. clean, cool water....

still, sometimes I wonder if he isnt wondering "...hrmmm.... I bet if i just leap at his face, he'll jump back and I can slip out... and hes too much of a pussy to just grab me without the gloves (and if he does, hes gonna need stitches).... so i can just get outside and its all good!".

The lil dumbass dosnt realize we dont live in California anymore... this is PENNSYLVANIA! You'll freeze!...*sigh*

(He DID make a run for it once in Cali... but he was like, 13" inches long and ended up getting to the top of the stairs in the hall of my apartment, looking down 3 storys worth of stairs, then doing a full 180 and coming back, lol)

good stuff...one suggestion if I may, dont worry about removing the 'uneatens'. Monitors often eat rotten meat, it wont hurt them and gives them the opportunity to hunt / eat when they want to rather than when you want them to. I have found it works, mine regularly eat much more than I would have fed them if I took it out after a half hour. I still tong feed a bunch, but after they slow down I just scatter dead mice all over the enclosure...like hiding easter eggs for my daughter haha. Sure enough they are all gone by the next day.

I am not being critical at all, you have more experience than I, just passing along some bits I have picked up from reading this forum and have put into practice. Take care -

Tom

My guy still dosnt trust enough for tong feeding- dosnt even like me in the room while hes eatting if possible. I dont like to pester him, so I let him have his privacy.

Theres always food in the cage, as it were, I just never let it get to a truly putrid state.

When I wake up in the morning (sometime from 9:30am to 11am usually) I pop about 3-5 mice and sometimes a day old chick out of the freezer. They usually take me about 30-40 mins to dethaw, during which I change the water and remove uneattens(see below). I pop these guys in a few random locations in his cage, then head off to do my daily errands.

Sometime around 10-12 that night I get home, remove any uneatten mice, and add another 3-5 newly thawed ones (cleaning the water again). Then I go watch TV til about 2am, at which points I go shut off any lights of his (besides 24/hour heat lighting) that are still on and head off to bed.

Next day, wake up and repeat.

I do this because he has a bad habit of playing with his food- case in point, a day or so ago I came in and all the mice were gone. I was like, oh, good boy. THEN I looked in the water- GAH! 4 of the mice, yeah, hed eatten them... that last one though he soccerballed across his cage and into the water... mustve happened right after I walked out too, cause this thing was FOUL... imagine a normal warm cess pool of monitor waste, dirt and warm water.... now imagine popping a dethawed mouse in there and lettin it marinate for, oh, lets say 12 FREAKING HOURS!...*shiver*... I think he thought it was funny too, cause he watched me intently as I performed a cleaning/cussing combo.

He seems to enjoy this routine, as I rarely bother him and he gets everything he needs... except some female company, lol.... but he aint gettin that!

last bloody thing I need is a litter of these things prowling about, lol

thanks for the tips guys, just out of curiosity though, how large is the pond you have that you can fit koy? mine is only about 40 galons. also, what filter do you have?
thanks again,
-jake

>>I just use one of those flood pumps ($60 Home Depot?)...attach a hose, plug it in and dump it into the pond. It drains it to 1/4 inch quite fast. I also use a pretty powerful little sponge filter in there that really keeps it pretty clean, I only do a complete water change once a week (clean the sponge filter every day or two). I use a fish net for the bigger chunks of stuff. It keeps pretty clear with minimal effort.
>>
>>Some large koi are great for eating the poop chunks too (if the monitor doesnt eat them haha).
>>
>>I dont worry about bacteria for my monitors (I do for myself). When I change the water I just wipe out the pond with some paper towel quickly and fill it up. I figure anything that readily eats rotten meat will be fine with a little funky water.
>>
>>Tom
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"I live for the nights I'll never remember with the friends I will never forget"