I'm using two Emperor 280's, which have a "bio-wheel". They also have mechanical and chemical filtration.
"The patented BIO-Wheel is the undisputed best biological filter - the ideal culture site for the growth and proliferation of BIO-Spira, the beneficial bacteria responsible for nitrification in aquatic environments."
Yeah those will be fine. Just never rinse them in tap water again. Keep doing water changes. Once the ammonia starts to get eaten, you'll get nitrites...and that spike can last quite some time as those bacteria take longer to establish.
Whatever happens, you still need an ammonia source. So don't get rid of all you fish, or if you do (or they die), you'll want to spike the tank with pure ammonia (hardware store). Try to maintain ammonia at 1ppm, if ammonia levels get too high, the cycle will stall. Once you get the nitrite spike, you may quit seeing ammonia on your test kit. If you are fishless at this point, dose the tank with enough ammonia to give you 0.5ppm every day until you start seeing nitrates (your nitrites should hit 0 too).
This could kill the fish in hours if the pH is high. You cannot recommend an ammonia maximum level without knowing the pH. At a pH of 6, you can go to 2 or 3 ppm with no ill effects; at a pH of 8, then 0.25ppm can be fatal.
