newbie... any advice?

[ponokareefer]

If I were starting a new system, I would use almost all dry rock. You would need only a few smaller pieces of live rock to get your dry rock "seeded".

I would only add fish that you plan on having for a long time. Damsels typically get mean and in a smaller system like yours, they are likely to bully most fish. Take a long look at sites on what fish you really, really like and build your fish list around them after doing research to make sure they will work.

A 33 gallon is a pretty small tank, so don't look to put a lot of fish in it and definitely not any larger fish. In my 34 gallon, I am only putting in 2 fish, a pair of clarki's. They get bigger as clowns and get mean, so any other fish are likely going to be dead. The more fish you add, the more stress you put on all of the fish.

With a skimmer, I recommend either get a good one, or I wouldn't bother with one at all. Cheap skimmers have always been a headache for me.

Since you are a newbie, I'd avoid SPS until you get the handle of things. With SPS, your chemistry is very important, you are likely going to need some form of a doser/calcium reactor and probably an expensive light fixture and then some way to cool the system from the strong lights. They aren't a very forgiving coral if you aren't on top of things. I'd recommend keeping it simple to start with and go for softies or LPS corals and get the hang of things first. I've actually gone this way with my 125 gallon as it is just simpler and a lot less of a headache. The corals are still beautiful and plentiful.

[Frankly Canadian]

I should mention that the Total Pets store here in Kelowna will take back your Damsels in exchange for fish bucks that you can use on nicer fish or corals, because yes my Damsels did become hostile to any new fish so I had to remove them.