you can adjust the out put with the ball value,dont put the value on the input

Does to matter what side of the filter the pump is on? Do I want to pull water through the filter or do I want to push water through?

what i would do is to gravity feed the water to the filter then to the pump.if you put the pump first, it will chop up the fish poop like a blender..a settling chamber before the filter is a good idea