Operation conditions such as reflux, sludge retention time (SRT), aeration intermediate, hydrogen retention time (HRT) and powder active carbon (PAC) dosing were optimized to start up a CANON-like MBR. Reflux can give the MBR system a good mixture. SRT did not have much effect on washout of nitrite oxidized bacteria (NOB) but related to membrane fouling. Decreasing aeration intermediate reduced ammonium removal rate to 50% due to the limited oxygen, but nitrification was dominant. HRT did not have much influence on ammonium removal rate, whereas reduce the NO3- (produced)/NH4+ (totalremoval) value to 0.8. PAC played a great role in ammonium removal and reduced the NO3- (produced)/NH4- (totalremoval) value to 0.55. Under the optimized operation conditions such as reflux of 1 m(3)/L, SRT of 20 days, aeration intermediate of 11 h 50 min off and 10 min on, 20 mg/L of PAC, one column (8#) and a membrane reactor (9#), ammonium removal rate was increased to 99% while the NO3- (produced)/NH4+ (totalremoval) value was around 0.55. Increasing the ammonium concentration to 6 mg/L can reduce the NO3- (produced)/NH4+ (totalremoval) value to 0.13. On a whole, Dissolved oxygen (DO) is the key to start up the CANON-like MBR treating surface water even under low temperature and sustainable flux increased the sustainability of the system. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.