I purchased my 180 gallon tank in Sept. 2005 as a complete setup from someone who was moving out of town. It had been running for around 4 years as a fish-only tank with around 200 lbs. of Marshal Island and Fiji rock so it was pretty well established when I got it.
I brought the tank home along with all of the water loaded into a bunch of containers so that I could get it back up and running the same day. Everything got setup during the course of the day and the fish were added back into the tank that evening with no losses.
About 6 weeks after I got the tank setup, I started to add corals. I initially started with some soft corals (Xenia, Anthelia, Green Start Polyps, Mushrooms) and then a couple of months later I began to add LPS corals and SPS frags.
The tank is now a little over a year old and seems to be doing quite well. I've got around 30 different types of corals and all of them seem to be growing and doing well. You can see some photos here http://community.prestage.com/photos/default.aspx.