Just fill the reservior with water 'till it's full.
Then cycle the pump, but be ready to unplug it when it starts to get noisy...that's your tip that the pump has emptied it's supply of water and is sucking air. The pump won't explode, but it's not too healthy for it.
Add water until the reservior is full again.
Cycle the pump again.
Continue until the pump can be left on without sucking air, and the reservior stays fairly full.
Then you can start to work making sure the heatercore/radiator has no air trapped in it. I pick mine up and "spank" it to burp out the trapped air. The pump will push the bubbles to the reservior.
Large reserviors like mine don't need to cycle the pump on and off, because it easily holds more water than filling the tubes/blocks requires. If you have a small reservior, then you'll need to turn the pump on and off to get the water worked through it all.
Keep an eye on the water level for a few days, but always keep an eye out for leaks. Once it's run at least overnight without one single droplet forming at any connections or along the seams of the waterblocks, then you may cautiously boot the system. If anything funky goes on durring boot, shut down quickly and look for any water that isn't where it belongs.
Then grab a frosty Coke and congratulate yourself on a job well done!