Proper goldfish care means changing 25% of the water in your goldfish aquarium once a week and checking your filter to see if it needs cleaning. Notice I said "checking your filter", not cleaning your filter.

Do not change your filter pads unless you see the water flow from your filter decrease. You don't need to clean your entire filter unless you see "sludge" in the filter.

A good "aged filter" can be torn down every six months and rinsed, not scrubbed in a bucket of tank water that you removed when doing your water changes. Never scrub, just rinse your filter, you do not want your "aged filter" to be "squeaky clean". The reason for not keeping your filter "squeaky clean" is that you do not want to destroy the life supporting "good bacteria GB" in and on your filter. The GB keeps your goldfish aquarium water free from toxic ammonia and nitrites. A filter with "slime" is a healthy filter!

Some new Goldfish Collectors that are just learning, will clean their filters under their tap water.The chlorine and all the other chemicals your city water department adds to your tap water to make it safe to drink, kills all the "good bacteria" in their filters. It takes months to grow GB and establish a good "aged filter" and it's all killed with just one tap water washing.

When it comes to filters, you want a "slime" covered filter. Take good care of your filter without over cleaning it and it will help you keep your goldfish happy and healthy.