Hi Jay,

The enclosure is absolutely incredible. I showed it to a friend of mine who worked at the herp exhibit at the Bronx Zoo for over 15 years and she was blown away.

Aside from looking fantastic, it is the perfect environment for my monitors. You're attention to detail in every aspect of the design will make for a very healthy environment for virtually any animal that is lucky enough to be housed in this enclosure.

I'm happy to say that it was your design that convinced a breeder of a rare species of water monitor to sell me one of these fantastic creatures. After visiting my apartment and inspecting the unit himself, he was convinced that, aside from a zoo, he couldn't find a better home for his monitors. And the unit looks awesome as well.

Cleaning these units is incredible efficient. I'm currently keeping a breeding pair of Merten's water monitors. Since they're sensitive to water-borne pathogens, I was concerned about keeping the water pool clean, especially since they do most of their foraging (and eating) in the water (not to mention defecate, urinate, etc..). The strategies others have taken are to either filter the water or to construct enclosures that are plumbed so that frequent water changes are practical and easy. The Bronx Zoo has adopted this latter approach for their colonies of Merten's monitors with great success (to my knowledge, no monitor of this kind has fallen victim to pathogens since this husbandry technique has been implemented).

As for my unit, there is a sump pump located in a pit at the bottom of the pool and a hose leading out from it which I conveniently lead out to the toilet during water changes. A simple press of a button activates the pump and purges the water in about 4 or 5 minutes. Another hose leads from my kitchen sink (fitted with an adapter to couple to the hose) and fills the pool in about 20 minutes. It's so convenient that I'm able to clean the pool (and the entire enclosure which is glass lined) every 3 days or so. For iguanas, the bottom of the unit would not be filled, but would still be equipped with a pump for rinsing the bottom and sides of the enclosure.

Control of UV light exposure is left to the animals in my case. The unit stands about 5 feet high, so as the monitors thermo-regulate (by moving along branches to a specific point within the thermal gradient, they, in essence, control the amount of UV light that they're exposed to.

I will say that I've had a number of expert herpetologists by to examine the enclosure and they are all in agreement that it is ideally suited to these incredible creatures. In some cases, they have admitted that the unit rivals those found in zoos breeding these animals. It's an expensive outlay of money, but well worth it in my opinion. If you're in the area and would like to come by to check it out yourself, feel free to give me a call. I'd be happy to answer any other questions you might have.

I've got to admit that I was somewhat nervous with the idea of carrying-out a business deal like this over the internet, but I could tell through our phone conversations that you took an incredible amount of pride in your work and that I wouldn't be let down. Well I wasn't!

I encourage you to give out my number and email address to anyone interested in purchasing one of these units from you. I'd be more than happy speak with them and, if they live nearby, to have them come by and see for themselves the type of work you do. Thank you so much for a job well done.

Best,
Ralph Imondi
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Department of Neuroscience
Kennedy Room 617
1300 Morris Park Ave.
Bronx, NY 10461
(718) 430-2429
imondi@aecom.yu.edu