Fish-ignorant : help needed with aquarium filter please

[sphil]

I have just bought DS1 a second hand aquarium. Have got a book and know about setting it up, leaving water to settle etc. But the one thing I don't get is the pump/filter. I have in front of me the following:

1. oblong perspex filter with a sponge one end and some little stones in the other. It has a plastic tube coming out of it with a valve on the end and two suckers on the back
   
2. Air pump - plug on one end, plastic tube on the other.
   
   Common sense makes me believe that I attach the two tubes together, stick the filter onto the side of the tank and switch on the pump. Is this right? And if so, should the valve be open or closed?
   
   Ds1 is very keen to get one of those air stone ornaments that lets a bubble out every so often. If I get one, where does that attach?
   
   TIA

[TheChillinator]

Internal box filters just stick to the side of the tank using the suckers fixed to the media box and pump. The air pump tubing should have a ceramic air-stone on the end to diffuse the flow of air into small micro-bubbles, there should also be a non-return or check valve in the air tubing to prevent any backflow of aquarium water from getting into the air pump itself.

Air stone ornaments have a connection point so they can be coupled to a seperate piece of air tubing which is buried under the substrate or concealed by decor. You can either connect the ornament to the pump you already have uisng a T-connector or connect it to its own pump.

Make sure you cycle the filter without fish before adding anything.

[sphil]

thanks - thats very clear. What happens to the tube that comes out of the filter? Does it stay under the water or stick out of the top? And does it matter whether the filter is at the top or the bottom of the tank?