i have two 180 gallon tanks. the cichlids live in the living room and the goldfish live in an extra bedroom i use to read in. the tanks are 6x2x2 feet. they do not seem to over power the rooms. the book room is the smallest room, but even in that room the tank does not over power the room. as far as the work that i do and the time i spend on them. once a week i clean filters and change water. the cichlid tank gets a 50% water change. the goldfish get about a 90% water change. most of this work is easy suck stuff out to my yard and add water, the total time both tanks about 3 hours. my goldfish have a bare bottom except for some dime to quarter sized stone so the food does not go to the filter. total area of stones is small plate size. the reason i cange so much goldfish water is goldfish are dirty nasty fish giving off a lot of waste. a large tank also will react more slowly than a smaller volume of water, ie temp,amonia spikes. :goldfish