Tetracycline antibiotics removal by adsorption with activated sludge from wastewater was accomplished in this paper, and adsorption characteristics, adsorption kinetics, and adsorption equilibrium were investigated in a batch system. The effects of initial concentration, temperature and solution pH on adsorption were also discussed. The results indicated that adsorption equilibrium of TC, OTC and CTC can be reached at 120, 90 and 90 min respectively under the conditions that the initial concentration of antibiotics was 1-2 mg/L, pH was 6 and temperature was 25 ℃.The adsorption kinetics of all three antibiotics followed pseudo second order rather than pseudo first order, and the corresponding adsorption capacity q_eq(mg/g) of TC, OTC and CTC were 1.638, 1.548 and 1.325, and the second adsorption rate constants k₂ ［×10³g/(mg·min)］ of TC, OTC and CTC were 65.52, 66.70 and 67.28 respectively. The Freundlich model fitted the experimental data better than the Langmuir model, and the isotherm equations of TC, OTC and CTC were q_eq=8.485c^1/0.915,q_eq=8.170c^1/1.063 and q_eq=7.573c^1/1.076 respectively. The optimal pH and temperature of all three kinds of antibiotics were 6.0 and 25℃. The higher the initial concentration was, the higher the adsorption capacity was, while it needed more time to reach equilibrium and the equilibrium concentration increased.