Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently purchased a baby sumatran water monitor. I am already planning his big cage. MY question is about his water. Abviously he needs a big water pond. My question is is it worth putting a filter on the water or just do water changes? I have a spectacled caiman and added a nice filter set up on it but dont know if it would be worth setting one up on the monitor since they make a much bigger mess. Any suggestions for the future or has anyone done a filter?
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Tom
1.2.0 Leopard Gecko (dot, spot, casper)
0.0.1 California King Snake (booboo)
0.1.0 Sulcata Tortoise (tank)
0.0.2 Russian Tortoise (tito and lulu)
0.0.2 Red Ear Sliders (bernie and ernie)
0.0.3 Painted Turtles (larry, curly and moe)
0.0.1 Western Soft shell (Squirt)
2.2.0 Bearded Dragon (marshmellow,Bubba,Sparkles,Alfredo )
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor (beef)
1.0.0 Peachfront Conure (kermit)
0.1.0 Love Bird ( KIKI )
1.1.0 Dog (layla and Rosco)
2.1.0 Crazy Cats (babe, sabastian, tinkerbell)
0.1.0 Lion Head Rabbit (daisy)
0.1.2 Ferret (jordan RIP, Cosmo and Izzy)
0.2.0 Guinea Pigs (lilly and petunia)
0.0.1 White Tree Frog (dumpy jr.)
0.0.2 Fire Belly Newts (spork and blaze)
0.0.1 Fire Belly Toad (ferdinan)
0.0.1 Red Spotted Newt ( red)
0.0.2 Bull Frogs (goliath and tubby)
0.0.1 Spectacled caiman (wilbert)
0.0.3 Green Anoles
1.0.0 Bahama Anole
0.0.1 Giant Millipede
Lots Of Fish

With a tank of 150 gallons or more you can get by with two or three water changes per week (as is often the case more is better). A tank of 100 gallons or fewer really should be changed 4 or more times per week. A tank of 100 or so gallons or more can use a filter, but any smaller than that and you'll be cleaning the filter more often than you clean the tank. This information is based mostly on my own experience, so of course others will differ on particulars.