newbie... any advice?

[Reef Puffer]

hi guys, im new to this sw stuff. been a fw guy for years. i have always wanted to get into the sw hobby..... so i drained my fresh water, built me a sump.... and now im on my way. i find my biggest obstacle to be finding supplies. i live in the shuswap/okanagan and it took me a month to find a simple return pump. LR is around 10$/lbs (and that means driving an hour to the lps). and nobody really even knows what their talking about. any ways, i have a 33gal main and a 15ish gal sump. everything just sitting here with salt water circulating. can the system just run like that with nothing in it but dead rock/coral? i figure another good month before i can afford LR at 10$lb. also does anyone know the best place for supplies and advice between kamloops and kelowna. anything else anyone would like to add that might be helpful to a newbie would b greatly appreciated thanx.