The objectives of this research are to investigate the mechanism of coagulation affecting UF, find out the effect of metal salt coagulant on membrane fouling. Either rapid mixing + UF or slow mixing + UF process caused much less flux decline. For PACl coagulant, the rate of flux decline was reduced for both hydrophilic and hydrophobic membrane than alum due to higher formation of flocs. In addition, the rate of flux decline for the hydrophobic membrane was significantly greater than for the hydrophilic membrane, regardless of pretreatment conditions. In general, Coagulation pretreatment significantly reduced the fouling of the hydrophilic membrane, but did little decrease the flux reduction of the hydrophobic membrane. When an Al(III) salt is added to water, monomers, polymers, or solid precipitates may form. Different Al(III) coagulants (alum and PACl) show to have different Al species distribution over a rapid mixing condition. During the rapid mixing period, for alum, formation of dissolved Al(III) (monomer and polymer) increases, but for PACl, precipitates of Al(OH)3(s) increases rapidly. This experimental results pointed out that precipitates of Al(OH)3(s) rather than dissolved Al(III) formation is major factor affecting flux decline for the membrane.