The decoloration treatment of textile dye effluents through biodegradation, using bacterial cells, has been studied as a possible means of solving some of the problems that are associated with the pollution of water sources by colorants. In this paper, the use of whole bacterial cells of Shewanella J18 143 for the reduction of aqueous solutions of selected mono-azo, metal-complex dyes, namely Irgalan Grey GLN, Irgalan Black RBLN and Irgalan Blue 3GL, was investigated. The effects of temperature, pH and dye concentration on colour removal were also investigated and shown to be important. The operative conditions for the removal of colour were 30 degrees C, at pH 6.8, with a final dye concentration of 0.12 g/L in the colour reduction system. This study provides an extension to the application of Shewanella strain J18 143 bacterial cells in the decoloration of textile wastewaters. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.