Hi Klucas007 -
From someone equally, if not even more, green especially on the coding side. I agree with @nrobinson2000 that module will work just fine and you should be able to Google some code examples quite easily. Just something to keep in mind, coding accelerometers might seem a bit daunting at first.
I wanted to use something similar to activate a battery indicator in a device I built a while back. As I needed a simple on/off function, I decided to go with a tilt switch instead. Much easier to handle in the code 
I suppose depending on exactly what you need, I would maybe rather go with the simple vibration/tilt switch. Each trigger should have a time stamp, so it should be easy to determine the “running time” by simply subtracting the two time stamps? I do agree that an accelerometer will most certainly give you more options though, I doubt you will be able to bring the Photon out of sleep mode using a tilt switch.
With regards to a sensor that works well with Particle, I am sure most of them will do just that. A simple search in Amazon or the all-knowing Google should give you plenty of options. If it is indeed for liquid flowing through a pipe you want to measure, I will opt to go with a flow sensor to eliminate false readings caused by outside vibration or bumps. A flow meter will also give you the option to determine flow rates and volumes.
Best of luck!