I voted for just water changes & skimming. I must add however, that I run a bare bottom aquarium, which has it's own special set of necessary maintenance.
I agree with the majority of the posts above. There are a variety of effective methods of nutrient export, it just depends on what the aquarist prefers to do, based on their own set of circumstances. I find that everything has trade-off's.
A refugium takes up a significant amount of room, requires time to maintain, and requires at least a small set of specialized equipment.
Zeovit (and perhaps prodibio) is a great solution, but it is expensive, and you really will have to put in the time initially to find out which, and the specific quantities of supplements you will have to dose.
Bio pellets and liquid carbon dosing are often associated with cyano bacteria, and I believe this to be because it reduces nutrients in abnormal ratios ( often it will drive NO3 to very low levels, without effectively reducing phosphates). In many instances GFO is needed to reduce the PO4 to keep algae and cyano at bay.
Admittedly, I don't know much about ATS. In essence they operate as a refugium, but in theory, grow algae much quicker, and therefore have the ability to export nutrients at a quicker pace.
If space and money were no object, I would have a multifaceted filtration which would include the following: A deep sand bed, a benthic refugium, a standard refugium (likely a combination of mangroves and sea grasses/algae), and an oversized protein skimmer.
