The air will most likly shred the inerds of the pump
but they dont blow up, you'll just wake up one morning to water flooding out of it XD Scared the Bleep out of my friends tank when his 8 gal looks to be overflowing when he just found out his fish swam inside and got stuck IN the pump valve. So I would suggest getting a valve smaller then your active fish.
However I have a Topfin Filter number 10 o.o before making another post, I thought it wouldint hurt to pust it in here, but when my guppies swim around the tank and then go to the far corner to relaxes and sleep, the filter is so strong it makes a river in there O_O it's ment for a 7 gal and high aquarium* this is a ten gal, but this thing is so fast my guppies cant get a good nights sleep inless they prop themselfs againced my dragon ornaments wing or jump into the moving cerent getting stuck IN the filtrasion area till I release them in the mornin' =/ cause when they sleep it turns them upsidedown and spins them about the gravil ><, does the filtration systum numer 10 from Topfin aquatics have a valve??