The acid biocoagulants produced from non-sterile lactic acid fermentation by Lactobacillus casei TISTR 1500 were used to settle colloidal protein, mainly casein, at the isoelectric point in dairy effluent prior to secondary treatment. High concentration of azo dye (Ponceau 4R) in the dairy wastewater and the stress of starvation decreased the efficiencies of the micro-aerobic SBR. Consequently, low casein recovery obtained and organic removal suffered a decline. The number of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) also declined from log 7.4 to log 5.30 in the system fed with 400 mg L(-1) of the dye containing wastewater. The recovery of the system, however, showed that 25,000 mg COD L(-1) influent with 200 mg L(-1) of the dye maintained the growth of LAB in the range of log 7.74-8.12. with lactic and acetic production (2597 and 197 mg L(-1)) and 83% protein removal. The results in this study suggested that the inhibitory effects were compensated with high organic content feeding. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.