Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Currently my water monitor's tank has a humdidity level of 60%, ambient temperature of 30 degrees, basking spot is 35 degrees. Is this sufficient? What adjustments should I make?

Make sure to keep him warm at night (28-30 degrees), and don't use sand for the substrate (I believe regular potting soil works). Soak him in luke warm water for an hour once a week.

I'm not very sure about the night temperature , I haven't checked it yet as I usually switch off the basking lights at night. My daytime ambient temperature is 30 degrees celsius, basking temperature 42. I'm more concerned with the humidity. I'm currently measuring 50-60% humidity. Is this enough?

To be honest, you should be more concerned about the night time temp, because if you don't, your monitor will start to have respiratory infections, stop eating, etc. You can get cheap and better quality lamps and a blue or red heat lamp from most hardware stores, such as Home Depot or Lowes (if you have those stores where you live)for your night lights. I think your humidity could be raised from 60-70%, but that is not as important as the temps, believe me. The most important part of keeping monitors, as Pro Exotics says, "keep 'em hot and feed 'em alot!" Good luck with your monitor!

Night time temperatures are not as important as the overall plan. If your monitor can warm up in the daytime and is in decent health at the start, then night time temperatures (within reason) are not too important. My monitors, including my just born hatchlings regularly go down to 23-25 degrees celcius at night. They even tolerate repeated exposures to 20-21 degrees Celcius. It does not bother them a bit. In the morning they are out basking and eating and growing. The basking sites are roughly 45-46 degrees Celcius in the daytime.
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^x^ Bloodbat ^x^

Night time temperatures are not as important as the overall plan. If your monitor can warm up in the daytime and is in decent health at the start, then night time temperatures (within reason) are not too important. My monitors, including my just born hatchlings regularly go down to 23-25 degrees celcius at night. They even tolerate repeated exposures to 20-21 degrees Celcius. It does not bother them a bit. In the morning they are out basking and eating and growing. The basking sites are roughly 45-46 degrees Celcius in the daytime.
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Night time temp is at 30 degrees. My basking spot is 42 degrees, a few degrees less. Will it make a difference? Its highly unlikely night time temps go as low as 25 or even 26 here. How bout the humidity. Heard it has to be 70% . How can I help retain the humidity? I mist the tank at least twice a day and it only remains about 50%, sometimes dropping below 50 and sometimes just at 60. I'll be getting an acrylic cover to put over the mesh to keep the humidity in. Anything else I can do?

Again, I am different than many keepers here. I do not worry excessively about my humidity. I have a water container that each monitor can fit inside and "swim" or soak. I also use screen lids. If I see a monitor soaking a lot (I do not actually count times, but if I notice that most of the time I see the animal it is in its water container, that means "a lot", then I add water directly to the substrate. I do not create mud or pools of water in mulch, but I start adding water and perhaps mist a few times. This usually resolves the problem.

I would not worry about a few degrees temperature differences. The temperatures I mentioned were my own temps and other keepers use higher and lower temps. Think of temperatures on a continuum. Mine might be good, a few degrees higher might be better or worse, a few degrees lower might be better or worse. More than one temperature will work. Experiment and find it!

I would not worry much about RI. As long as you are doing things relatively well and the animal was in decent health to begin with, then you probably have little reason to be concerned about RI.
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^x^ Bloodbat ^x^

Well, I've provided him a water conatainer where he can totally submerge and swim in (though not very far). He usually goes there only at night when its time to sleep. The rest of the day, He can be found either hiding under his basking log or basking atop it. He usually doesn't go into the water during the day.
Thanks for the advice.

Ok, I've just checked the temperature. The lights have been off for about 3 hours and temps at 30 degrees. Its quarter past midnight right now. Any ideas on how to raise the humidity? I use dirt as a substrate.

You, I, anybody else can make all sorts of guesses on what your (or any) monitor needs, but instead of forcing the monitor to be at a certain humidity, why not offer it places to go, that are more and less humid, so it can choose how (and when) it wants to retain water. The same should be done for temps.

While some people seem obsessed with RI, I would bet dehydration kills many more monitors. But I wouldn't be so sure problems with RI weren't water related instead of heat related. Overly dry or wet can wreak havoc on a respiratory system. That is why it is best to let the monitor choose what it needs than force it to what we think it needs.

Good Luck,

--Robert