"Paul" wrote in message
...
Thanks. I've been reading and a lot of articles say not to clean them
anymore than you have to.Does that make sense?

Yeah, you need the bacteria build-up in the filter to balance your pond
water biologically - once that is achieved you will have clear water as the
algae bloom has nothing to live on and starves. Ergo when you clean the
media in your filter, you temporarily slow down the biological action in
your filter. I use scotch brite type pads (5 cu ft in a 45 gal barrel) and I
use chlorinated tap water to back flush during the season and to clean the
media for winter storage and have never had a problem even though you keep
reading you can't use tap water for this. I think it is because the pads are
fairly dense and you can't get them completely clean and they get back up to
speed quickly
Gale :~)