I'm not a fan of a bunch of work either. But I bet that the 125 probably could have been reconfigured to be a lot less maintenance.. instead of getting rid of it all together. Generally there is less maintenance on a bigger tank. However you had it setup, I bet if you halfed your stock, it would have made a big dent on how often you needed to maintain it.
Or, got rid of the stock in the 125, then moved the stock from the 60 to the 125 and kept the 60 as just a spare tank. Whatever you have in the 60 would have been loving the extra space, you would have been loving the extra action of the occupants using that extra space.. and presumably you would have loving the lower maintenance of a lightly loaded tank.
Just throwing ideas around...