Filters are widely applied in drinking water treatment plants. Our previous study, which explored the asenic redox in a filter of drinking water plant treating underground water, found that As3+ could be oxidized to As5+ by biogenic manganese oxides, while As5+ could be reduced to As3+ by some microbial arsenic reductases in the biofilter system. This microbial competition could influence the system stability and treatment efficiency. To explore its mechanism, this study selected a manganese-oxidizing bacterial strain (Pseudomonas sp. QJX-1) and a arsenic-reducing strain (Brevibacterium sp. LSJ-9) to investigate their competitive relationship in nutrient acquisition and arsenic redox in the presence of Mn2+, As3+ or As5+ The results revealed that the concentration and valence of Mn and As varied with different reaction time; biological manganese oxides dominated the arsenic redox by rapidly oxidizing the As3+ in the existing system and the As3+ generated by arsenic reductase into As. PCR and RT-PCR results indicated that the arsenic reductase (arsC) was inhibited by the manganese oxidase (cumA). The expression of 16S rRNA in QJX-1 was two orders of magnitude higher than that in LSJ-9, which implied QJX-1 was dominant in the bacterial growth. Our data revealed that hydraulic retention time was critical to the valence of arsenic in the effluent of filter in drinking water treatment plant.