Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need some help. Before I ask my questions I will explain the setup for my red ackie to give you a bette runderstanding of my situation.

I recently purchased a baby red ackie. It is not my first monitor, I own a Timor. Since the ackie is still young and small, I didn't create an enclosure or buy a large trough yet. The man I purchased him from said since he is small, he will be OK in a 20 gallon for now.

The enclosure I have the the red ackie is as follows:
All glass. It has the same length and width as those 20 gallons you see in pet stores but its is a very tall tank, 2.5 feet tall. Since the tank is that tall, I put 10 inches of pete/sand/potting soil. The mix I put in allows for burrows to hold up and keep some moisture.

The decour and hides in teh tank are as follows: Whole back of tank is covered with this bamboo mat type stuff, I saw this in tree monitor enclosures at East Bay Vivarium so I copied it. Under the heat lamp I have a large half log that has a smaller half log under that and another even smaller half log under that one. I did this because I didn't create the Retes Stack yet. Although it's not a Retes Rack he seems to enjoy it. The spaces between each log is very small and he wedges himself into these small crevices. I will be creating the Retes Rack today so don't worry. On top of the largest hollow log is a cork bark slab/hide. This further allows more layers of hide and bask control. On the other end of the tank is a large water bowl. The tank has 2 large branches. 1 reaches next to the heat lamp for another basking spot. I also have 2 PVP pipes kinda buried in the substrate that he sometimes uses for a hide. 1 is in the very end of the cool side and the other one is in the middle of the tank. Also there is another slab of cork bark reaching from the middle of the tank that extends down to the coller end. It is just placed on the floor for another hide spot.

The hot basking spot temp. is 115 and the cool end of the tank is in the mid 70's. My ackie uses the different hides and I've seen it bask, use the different layers of half logs, explore, dig, and eat. To me it seemed like it was doing OK in this enclosure for now, until it grows and I create a large enclosure or trough.

My question is this. I've read that screen tops are a big NO-NO when it comes to monitores because it will dry out the enclosure and thus the monitor. But it seems like all the substrate I have in the tank is holding enough moisture and also the water bowl. Will I be able to keep this screen top until I make the new enclosure when my monitor grows, or should I change the lid to this tank or even change the whole tank itself? I would think that but a couple mistingins a week that the tank would be OK. Can you experts give some advise?

P.S. SOrry for the long post but I want the best for that ackie, and thus posted the whole set up. Thanl you

Also the bamboo mat covering the back of the tank is to help the monitor feel more secure. It's not really for climbing like what it's used for the tree monitors I saw.

Pete??/peat/sand/potting soil is a nice mixture for growing plants. I am sure it does hold moisture, but unfortunately, your not growing plants your growing a monitor. They do not like moist or wet ground. They perfer poor aridland soils, lacking organic matter, which as you can tell is not your mixture. Again, they hate wet or moist, they need humidity, which is not the same as moist or wet. One has to do with water in the air, the other has to do with water in the substrate, two different things.

Actually I could careless what you do, I don't know you and its your monitor, to many years on this forum, but I would suggest that you use the monitor as the center of your design and not the water or the soil.

ITs a simple problem that has nothing to do with dirt. Monitors require hotspots, in order to get that without heating the whole cage, you use a lite bulb or some such thing to make heat, if that works, then it makes heat, that heat also heats up the air around the hot spot, which quickly raises up and goes out the top. So what you say, me too. But the hot air leaving the cage causes a vaccum and thats filled by cool dry air thats in the room. Did you notice there is no mention of substrate yet. This cool dry air rushes across the cage drying all things out, and if it happens to move across the monitor, it drys it out too.

So you can make mud and keep the substrate wet, but what does that have to do with the monitor, maybe good for a mudpuppy or you can slow down the airflow, don't use a screen top and not have that problem. Then you can actually use the type of soil the monitor is designed to use. Its your choice.

Now if you cannot figure out how to fix this, maybe you should not get living animals(that suffer from your mistakes) I mean, its very easy to solve, as simple as laying a magazine on top, or as complicated as making a new top.

I am sure your a nice smart person, but this has been discussed forever. You even mentioned you know this. Trouble is, you don't know this, as you do not understand the problem. You think its about dirt and its not, its about your monitor.

About dirt and burrows(while i am at it) people do this and that to allow some sort of dirt to hold a burrow, hmmmmmmm all types of substrate will hold a burrow when wet. But again, monitors do not want their substrate wet. Its kinda about a substarte that holds a burrow when not wet.

The point of this post is very important, its about problem solving, with is all about keeping animals in captivity. You have seperated the subject(the ackie) from the situation and solved the problems without the ackies concern. in other words, you did it wrong. Your solving the wrong problem. The problems are the concern of the ackie, and how it effects it. So you must learn to solve the problems "that way". The ackie is the focus of the problem solving.

As an example, you were flying a kite, and the gust of wind came up, it broke the string. So in order to fix it, you replaced the string with winch cable. Of course that will not break, but then your kite will not fly either. The kite is suppose to fly. Your solutions are suppose to help your monitor(fly) not just solve a problem that does not allow that. I once owned a shop, we kept loosing hammers. One fella fixed that, he bolted the hammers to the work table. trouble is, now you don't lose them, but you cannot nail things either. Which is the same as not having a hammer. FR

The substrate isn't wet. I was not able to get dirt so I went for this mix. I just wanted to know some other alternatives instead of using a screen top. Would having half screen and the other end of the screen lid covered up help at all? I am thinking about just using wood. Any recommendations?

Well never mind. I'll be getting an enclosure from Cages by Design. But I would like to clear a few things up. Before I got the Ackie, I did reseach and asked a few people about the husbandary needs. First off I DID NOT keep the substrate wet/muddy. Second the reason I used a substrate of peatmoss/sand/cactus mix is because I was told from someone who breeds monitors and works at a very well known pet store told me that would be fine. As for the screen top thing. I was asking because despite haveing the screen top for a day, the humidity was at a perfect level. This was because the substrate just came out of the bag. Note: I only had this set up for 1 day.

I made adjustments and everything is fine for now. I will be ordering an enclosure from CBD and will also be getting dirt from a rock shop by my home, after hours of looking i finally found a place that has dirt.

You may want to try a nice decomposed granite/ sandy type of substrate. Im not familure with these aussie species, but from what ive osberved, this is this type of medium that is used frequently with them.
I guess like a sand castle... it can be perfectly dry to the touch, but hold its shape wonderfully.

For the time being, you would want to cover the side of the enclosure that you are heating. For instance, if your light is hanging on the left, then cover that side(instead of the cooler side) so that you are not creating a vacume and pushing all the moisture out of the cage.