Dude...trust me, I know how you feel. We won two free goldfish at a carnival in October. After singlehandedly attempting to wipe out the goldfish population, we switched to tropicals. After then singlehandedly trying to wipe out the guppy population (something I am still apparently trying to do -- no more guppies for me), I found this site.
My post above tells you EXACTLY how to cycle the tank. It took me six weeks with my 10 gallon and four weeks with my 5 gallon. Trust me, I tried NOT to listen to what these very bright people told me at first, but as soon as I started listening to them, my fish started staying alive longer than a week.
As
QT told you, there are a couple ways to do this. The first is the method I described. Since right now you have no fish in there, that method won't work. It only works with fish in the tank.
The second is to go to the
LFS and ask for some gravel from one of their tanks. Since you know the guy so well, he may be willing to do that for you. Dump it into your tank. I did that with our 20 gallon...the tank cycled in four days. You say your uncle has a 55...see if he'll give you some gravel (even if he's having problems...everyone does at some point)
Finally, you can go online and order Bio-Spira. I haven't tried it, because I didn't get it ordered in time before we bought the 20 gallon, but many on this board swear by it. We will use it when we install the 55 gallon.
All that being said, you do need to make yourself familiar with the cycle of a tank. Many of the articles on this board are helpful (I admit...some of the chemical mumbojumbo bored me to tears, but I did begin to understand how things work).
You also have to get a decent test kit and test your water regularly, even after it is cycled. I tested all three of our tanks this morning, and I'm glad I did. The 5 and 20 both had a slight nitrite spike (not sure why in the 20 as it was fine earlier this week, but the 5 is because of a bit of overfeeding...lots of gunk when I did a gravel vac this morning). I am diligent about testing my tanks...to the point of obsession. Scooped and flushed too many little dead bodies!