Hi and welcome to the forums!
The critical thing is that you get in that good liquid-reagent based test kit (most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit) and separately find the right kind of household ammonia. No test kit I've ever heard of comes with the ammonia you need. Instead, finding household ammonia that doesn't have dyes, fragrances or surfactants or soaps is usually one of the difficult adventures of this hobby. You have to visit all the "mop & broom" sections of grocerys, hardware and bigbox stores in town! And don't let the people at the front turn you away, they often don't have any idea and you have to find it yourself. Then of course you have to keep re-reading the rdd1952 fishless cycling article in the beginners resource center and asking questions and posting what you're doing.
By the way, its fine that its been set up and running, won't hurt a thing but you can't count any days as being towards fishless cycling until the ammonia is in there and after that it may take two months for all the bacteria to grow. Count yourself lucky though that you've found a place that knows what its talking about, the members here are great.
Sounds like you've already read some threads of others here (a great thing to do by the way) and have figured out that carbon (aka charcoal) is not normally used in a filter on a day to day basis. Be sure to review all your new media with the members when you get it and be sure its the right stuff for your fishless cycle. Good Luck!
~~waterdrop~~
