RoosWorld - Welcome to the board
Books are a great place to start, and so is this board.
The Conscientious Marine Aquarist is a pretty good book to start with and ask questions from.
My lights are on 9 to 10 hours a day
For sure you are going to go through a cycle now, over the next 40 days or so you may get to hate your tank with all the algea and diatom blooms that you are going to see. But remember how beautiful it looks now that it is freshly setup, you will strive to keep it that way over time.
Cycling is very hard on fish, most prefer to cycle with the raw shrimp method, then add fish.
In my opinion your LFS jerked you around some, prices are almost always cheaper on line, we do not share competitor links on this site but you can do searches from your web browser and come up with tons of places to do your shoping and save big. Also the advice about just tossing the fish in, is wrong, stressful on your fish, and could lead to disease in your tank. Go ahead and ask your LFS questions, then come here and get a 2nd opinion.
Good luck on your tank and let us know anytime you need anything answered.
Thomas