Abstract: The study on the start-up and the performance of ANAMMOX process was undertaken by using the filter reactor loading ceramsite media.In this study, the effluent of "A-O" phosphorus removal process was feeded into the reactor as experimental substrate.Firstly, the aerobic nitrifying bio-membrane on the ceramsite media of reactor was cultivated naturally;then the nitrifying bio-membrane was converted into the ANAMMOX bio-membrane by the natural selection and artificial inducement under the anoxic condition.It had been 7 months before the ANAMMOX bio-filter was started up successfully, in which the removal load of TN reached 6.8 kg/m³·d with an apparent specific growth rate of the ANAMMOX biomass upto 0.001 8 h^-1.The upflow experiment indicates that the upflow operation is favorable to improving nitrogen removal capability of the ANAMMOX bio-filter.The maximum total nitrogen removal load of the experimental filter reached 12.37 kg/m³·d, which was higher than the maximum value of 8.9 kg/m³·d that were achieved in a gas lift reactor reported in the literature.In addition, the stoichiometry and the removal property of COD in the process of ANAMMOX indicates that the heterotrophic denitrification process follows the ANAMMOX process and is favorable to the total nitrogen removal of the bio-filter.