[Silliest]

Are they fishy before you use them?

If so, try soaking overnight in baking soda (about 1 part soda to 8 parts water)
then soak the next night in vinegar at the same ratio

then report back ;->

If they are not smelly until you use them, you may have an infection. Many infections can be more or less asymptomatic, but odor is usually a sign.

 

[Silliest]

Ah! Hard water makes a difference. You might want to try the vinegar soak on *one* pad first and make sure it doesn't make things worse. It can sometimes be a problem with hard water, but it depends on exactly *which* minerals you have a lot of in your water.

The baking soda should be safe and should help.

If not, you can also use oxiclean, there are recipes for making your own with washing soda and hydrogen peroxide if you are interested in that. The homemade stuff is good for deodorizing.

 

[Silliest]

I wash mine with regular laundry.
1/4 cup (or less) BS for "wash" and a downy ball of vinegar for "rinse". But I have normal water ;-p

For any stains that don't come out in the first wash, I douse with Hydrogen Peroxide and re-wash. So far, so good.

You will most likely need an acidic rinse after an alkaline wash, but you may have to fiddle with it a lot.
With your hard water, you might try Borax instead of vinegar. I haven't *heard* of hard water probs with Borax, but always experiment on non-valuable items first ;->

If they don't smell after the BS, I'd just run them through a rinse cycle and go with it