Well as always.. "it all depends" but you know that..

Are you starting from 100% scratch?

I've always been the impatient type, and as far as tank set-up i've never lost anything.. I figure toss in at least 25% of the rock as established stuff, throw a cube of frozen food or something else that will decompose (like a shrimp) in there to kick-start it, and let things go for a couple of weeks... run the skimmer with no cup so the inside gets broken in but you arent actually pulling anything out for now. I never liked the 6-8 week crap, I could never wait that long