The residual aluminum concentration in treated water after aluminum coagulation and solid-liquid separation is one of the key factors in evaluating the effectiveness of water treatments. Polymeric membrane filters have been widely used to operationally define dissolved substances from particulate matter, and have sometimes been employed in laboratories and pilot studies to approximately simulate media filtration. A comparison between media and membrane filters, however, has not yet been fully investigated. This study compared aluminum concentrations in the filtrate after sand bed and membrane filtrations. The aluminum concentration after sand bed filtration was lower than that after filtration using a membrane with a pore size of 0.1 mu m, irrespective of the membrane material, with one exception. A PVDF membrane with a pore size of 0.1 mu m produced a similar residual aluminum concentration to that obtained using a sand bed. When the natural organic matter concentration was very low, the aluminum concentration in the PVDF membrane (pore size 0.1 mu m) and sand bed filtrates was lower than that obtained using other membranes with the same pore size. It is believed that adsorption of dissolved aluminum may enhance aluminum removal by the sand bed and the PVDF membrane when the aluminum exists in an uncomplexed form with natural organic matter. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.