Hi Katie. Congrats on the house!

Some canister filters come with a pump built into the lid, but Googling your model I see that you do need a separate pump. It should go in the water, onto the end of one of the hoses.

So you hook up the two hoses to the nozzles on the side of the canister - the ports that say INLET and OUTLET. Make sure you determine which hose should go into which port by looking at the other ends of them. The submerged end of the intake hose should have a spot where you can attach the pump. For the pump to work, you need to isolate the intake vents of the pump from the out.

Once you’ve attached the hoses to the canister and the other ends of the hoses are submerged in the pond, hook up both the pump and the canister to electrical outlets - presumably he had some kind of extension running to the pump. The canister should sit in that hole, slightly underground to reduce the pump’s workload. Make sure that dial on the canister is set to POND, and then you can turn it on and the water should start to circulate in and out of the pond.

Have a look at some YouTube videos if it helps; I believe it’s a Tetra Pond Bio-Active Pressure Filter.

Katie, so sorry to hear it's all confusing, but I do understand. There are so many different ways to do a pond, to plumb them, and a variety of things to use. They are all different. When it's new to you, it can be utterly daunting... however, yours seems to have a straightforward setup.

Don't plug anything in until you have it all connected. Most importantly, you can burn your pump up by running it without being submerged, and yes, yours is the kind that must be submerged under water : )

1) Your pump must go in the pond, under water. Place at your deepest spot.

2) Insert the hose that fits the end of your pump - then connect that hose into your filter, where it's marked Inlet, or Intake. (that's the water that will be pumped from your pond into the filter - it will need filtering).

3) Use the other hose and screw it into the filter at the area marked Outlet or Out. The other end of the hose should go in in your pond (this will be filtered water, added back to the pond). Turn the filter to Pond.

4) Now you can plug everything in.

I see that your filter has "Clean" on it. You should re-read the owner's info and see if you can figure out how to clean you filter - it should be done weekly, depending on the condition of your pond.

Lastly, fish will eat worms, algae, and some bugs. Don't overfeed them fish food, it just mucks up your pond, adds to much ammonia from the fish poo. Every 3 days is good enough.

Later, you might wish to consider a fountain or falls or something for aeration - makes you fish happier and healthier.

Come back this winter if you need help with that... and welcome to ponding. You're now a Ponder : )

You want to absolutely make sure the hoses don't come loose or you will drain the pond-poor fish. Use the metal clamps that have a screw that you turn with a screw driver to keep the hoses on. It looks like the clamps may be on the ends of the hoses. You will enjoy your pond and your fish babies. Don't add any fish to your pond--the new ones most likely will be diseased and cause your old fish to die. They have babies every year and a few will keep from being eaten.