Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What about those species of worms, flagelates,etc. that cycle reproductively in the enclosure? What about those water bowls in which our monitors use the bathroom? Having a drink of water and roundworm ova? Yea, you change the water as needed but its just gross and disgusting anyway! I am thinking of a flow through water system for my enclosures. It works great for chicken houses, koi fish and other animals. Has anyone used this method?

If your monitor is pooping in the water regularly it is telling you something....It is dehydrated.
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"Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!" Charlie Papazian

hehehehee you again. Its Salvator salvator and S. bivittatus as well as Salvatorii

I'm not sure what your point is. Do you think those spp do not get dehydrated? Funny, but their biology tells me they dehydrate much quicker than their arid cousins. In my experience monitors like to defecate around favorite basking spots and down in holes, rarely in the water. But then again, I'm very young and have little experience...what do I know.
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"Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!" Charlie Papazian

Well let me explain then. Waters(4)and Niles (one big horrible one)are semiaqatic. Crocodile monitors come from wet jungles and mangrove swamps and they also like to lie in water, but not as much as those others. They all have huge water pans indoors but they often poop when they get out. All of these animals live on a deep damp substrate and the humidity in there is in the mid 80%s. Its like steaming tropical jungles.So hot and humid I can hardly stand to be in there for long because I'm wringing wet. I keep my African grassland monitors at 50-60% and they hardly ever bathe. So I am thinking the Waters, Crocs and Nile are probably in the water because they enjoy it. If someone can think of a way to improve things please let me know.

>>hehehehee you again. Its Salvator salvator and S. bivittatus as well as Salvatorii

I make it a point to know all the spellings of the animals I keep and some that I don't. V.salvadorii.

[I make it a point to know all the spellings of the animals I keep]

An is so perfect, he never makes a 'typo'

And I am nearly blind and type with one finger. Guess which

Hehehe. Let me think???)

If you want to filter/recycle your water you will need to make sure that clean water is returning to the area that the monitor has access too. To do this you will need to use 3 types of filtration methods all of which will be a separate system from the enclosure. 1st, Chemical Filtration: Use carbon to remove organic waste and other pollutants. 2nd, Biological Filtration: Beneficial bacteria to denitrify the water and keep your ammonia, nitrate and nitrite down, as these could cause chemical burns in high concentrations. They also provide breeding grounds for bad bacteria and parasites. 3rd, Mechanical Filtration: Filter floss and filter pads to trap solid waste. A UV sterilizer would be wise to install as well as this will sterilize the returning water hence killing bacteria and parasites and their larvae. Constructing a filter system of this size, (especially for a large monitor) is a large undertaking. Not to mention you will still need to maintain the filter system and water changes will still be necessary.

While it can certainly be done, I provide my monitors with a water dish large enough for them to drink from only. Every other day, they get 30 minutes in the bathtub.

So its just like a koi pond. I once built a 10,000 gallon koi pond system with UV burners, then a 1800 gallon settling tank followed by upwelling 1000 gallon biofilter with 10 minute dwell time and a final off gassing tower. Finally I just started adding enough flow through to qualify as an open system, running in 10,000 gallons of areated well water per day making the filter system redundant. I built all this with stuff from HomeDespot. Monitors are somuch more fun than fish!

My guys have swimming pools outside, but I was thinking of making fake rock walls inside the building with little waterfall jungle pools they could drink from. I could rig up the old koi pond stuff. Thank you what a good idea.

Chicken houses and other livestock have half cut out PVC pipes with water flowing through like a trough.

If the lizard poops there constantly, theres a problem.
But clean the dish. Dont be paranoid about parasites and bacteria with your monitor, remember their immune system is many many times more effective than our own would ever dream of being. That is of course when they are given the opportunity to be healthy.

Keeping the water clean is very important . Bad things happen when the water gets dirty. Keeping everything clean is important. It's common to hear things like parasites are natural , animals in the wild aren't bothered by them etc. In the wild animals don't control parasites on their own. There are a number of limiting factors including the animals contracting parasites that eat parasites. Natural de-wormers . What ever you can do to help keep things clean is good. I think you know this already. From reading what you've been saying you probably have more game then a lot of the "experienced" guys.

For some reason people are very interested in how others spend their time and money . They love to tell people what they don't need. I understand the concept of over kill I know how little you can provide and have the animals live long / produce what ever but I also think that if a keeper wants to the extra mile. Do it.

( fake rock walls inside the building with little waterfall jungle pools )

I did a couple set ups like these for a nature park . Looked good and the lizards seem to like it. I went the simple route. I put a drain in the pond and hooked the water fall to a line. The water ran during park hours and was turned off at night. Moving water encourages drinking .Some people put air stones in the water bowls to increase the humidity I always did it because it helped to get some animals to drink.

It's true dehydrated lizards defecate in their water bowls it's also true that perfectly healthy monitors do this. It's very common in reptiles . Overall how do your lizards look and act ? Bright eyes, feeding like pigs , active ? Doing lizard stuff? A good friend on mine likes to say ,

Their your animals , you clean them , feed them, breed them, you know them.

Ernie Eison
WESTWOOD ACRES REPTILE FARM INC.

Ive never used big swimming pools for reptiles, but as mentioned by someone else the filtered water with UV sterilizer is a good idea, after all they sell those things for people to sterilize water to drink when in the wilderness, it takes a few seconds total.
If you clean the dish (a dish small enough to do so regularly and does not need filtered) you will have gotten rid of any worms, etc in the dish, if not, you are not cleaning it. If you have an animal passing on parasites to itself over and over the parasites were present regardless of how clean the dish is.
Ive never had a problem with internal parasites in my dirty cages, years ago I had a few WC reptiles with problems in cages with useless substrates. I stopped having problems with them when I stopped treating the lizards for them, something to think about, Im sure many others have this same experience, so far in more than 20 years the only parasite problems Ive had were those which were treated for worms, that was a long time ago.