In this study, three types of adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) were employed to predict effluent suspended solids (SS(eff)), chemical oxygen demand (COD(eff)), and pH(eff) from a wastewater treatment plant in industrial park. For comparison, artificial neural network (ANN) was also used. The results indicated that ANFIS statistically outperformed ANN in terms of effluent prediction. The minimum mean absolute percentage errors of 2.67%, 2.80%, and 0.42% for SS(eff), COD(eff), and pH(eff),could be achieved using ANFIS. The maximum values of correlation coefficient for SS(eff), COD(eff), and pH(eff) were 0.96, 0.93, and 0.95, respectively. The minimum mean square errors of 0.19, 2.25, and 0.00, and the minimum root mean square errors of 0.43, 1.48, and 0.04 for SS(eff), COD(eff), and pH(eff) could also be achieved. ANFIS's architecture can overcome the limitations of traditional neural network. It also revealed that the influent indices could be applied to the prediction of effluent quality. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.