I would say that it depends on what you want. If you only want a tank with fish, but no living plants, I think a
UGF would be a huge waste of time and way to much work. I have a 20 gallon fw tank that only has 1/4" of gravel on the glass, one rock for decoration, and a pengiun 125 biowheel
HOB filter. This tank stays crystal clear and the only maintenance I have to do is once a week I filter the gravel and replace about 5 to 7 gallons of the water, and then monthly replace the filter in the pengiun 125, which runs 3 bucks. This is by far the cleanist tank I have ever kept and is the least amount of work as well. On the other hand, I COULD NOT keep plants in this tank with much success I don't think, although I could be wrong.
So I'd say review what you want, and this plan for it. Adding live plants to a tank is a lot more work and
IME UGF's help greatly. If you don't want plants though, a simple
HOB and a heater is all you really need, and if this is the case, keep your gravel to a bare minimum, just cover the glass, and you will have great success.
If you do decide that you want plants, I am not qualified to give advice, haha. Hope this helps.