What I learned right off in this room was to not clean filters with
anything
but pond water. Any type of filter also acts to some degree as a bio
filter
and you don't want to kill off the bacteria on the filter that breaks down
the fish waste. For mechanical filters you want the water to be able to
flow through them but you don't want to wash them off to the point of them
being 'sparkling clean'.

Yeah - I keep reading that here as well, but I've been cleaning my media
with my garden hose for 10 yrs and have never had a problem (chlorine, not
chloramine in my water) the pads Carl and I are using are almost impossible
to completely clean and some bacteria must be left behind and the filter
never skips a beat - no green water, so I guess the filter recovers before a
problem happens - I just started mine yesterday -(Wed) looked like a swamp
:~( and can see down 12" today - I know I will see bottom by Sunday -
Also it is an upflow type and also works as a mechanical filter
Gale :~)