Also just a side note my friends father took me under his wing and taught me the art of aquariums he got me into it and helped me and told me all I need to know if someone told me yes and he said no I would go by his judgement I really respect him he told me I didn't need to water change, cycling can be a waste of money, and testing is an extra thing not essential I know it goes against a lot of you and I respect and appreciate every answer I get because I love this sight and appreciate my friendly people I meet but I have to go with his word...
Well I'm sorry to say but your whole idea has a few major flaws in it.
Even the most basic under standing of water chemistry in your fish tank would allow you to understand why.
First of all if you have a tank with a filter your tank cycled. Whether or not you wanted to cycle it, it did. It's something that just HAPPENS whether you plan it to or not, it's not a choice we just make because we think testing and waiting is a fun time. What we CHOOSE is to be aware of what is going on within our little eco system. You're tank IS cycled. You just didn't know about the process and didn't remove or help the stresses it put on your fish.
Water changes are essential. Ammonia coverts to nitrite, nitrite to nitrate. This CAN NOT CONVERT. It doesn't get converted the only way it gets removed is through water changes. The same thing goes for buffers in your water. These won't last forever, they get used up and adding fresh water is the perfect way to get those back in there. Nitrate IS harmful to your fish. Less so than ammo or nitrite but it still buils up and needs to be removed with regularly. Cycling a tanak has NOTHING to do with money. A bottle of money is all you need. Or even cheap just do fish in, no money required.
Just because your fish SEEM ok, does not mean they are. They can't show you they aren't ok unless they start acting strange, most times at this point it's too late. Testing you water is key to pick up on these things before it's too late. Being exposed to horrible water conditions may not kill your fish right away. They may live their whole life with few issues but they won't live their full life, they will more than likely have their life cut short because of poor conditions.
People who keep little goldies in a bowl or 5 gallon tank that talk about how their fish did fine. They never got sick and lived a nice old age of 5 years. They think everything was fine and they did everything right. The reality is 5 years is nothing for a gold fish. The world record is something like 45 years! 10 years is still a low ball for the potential a golfish has. Most never meet this age or their full size(over 8 inches for some and over a foot for others). But no one knows, because they've listened to a friend or family member, or the great guy at the pet store. They've been doing it this way and it's been fine all along but the reality is it isn't. Do some reading and open your mind to what an animal needs and what you need to do to give it to them.
It's great your friends dad has a love for the hobby but his word isn't better than science. Just because you don't want the nitrogen cycle to happen doesn't mean it's not going to. Clear water does not make healthy water.
A bacterial bloom is harmless, it's the conditions that cause them that can be harmless when not handled properly.
Save the fish the stress and risk of killing them and start with small water changes. The PH has probably crashed because it's been 5 months in that tank. Once the PH crashes it stalls your cycle. Ammonia and nitrite can not be converted at a low PH. When a tank is not cycled it makes bacterial blooms easier to happen. It's very common in newer tanks for this reason. Slowly change out the water every couple days as mentioned above and slowly get those nitrates down and that PH up. Doing a 100% change at this point will shock the fish and most likely kill them.
I'm sorry if you take offense to what people are saying but we love this hobby. We've spent a lot of time researching and learning these things. To have someone who says they love the hobby just come here and try to disagree with facts that are completely proven through science just doesn't work. What you are doing is NOT ok for your fish. You can tell your self it if you want, we can't change your mind but disagreeing with us all doesn't change the fact of it all.
I hope you take us seriously here and really see the truth and importance of this all. I do.
