In this paper a study about the influence of nutrients and trace elements addition in the performance of anaerobic inverse fluidized bed reactor (IFBR) was conducted. The reactor was adapted for the anaerobic degradation of the organic matter present in commercial substrate. During reactor startup, the substrate consisted only in the diluted commercial apple juice with adjustment of the pH value to neutrality with the addition of sodium bicarbonate. Low density particles of extendosphere® was used as support material and a fraction of previously colonized particles was used as inoculum. Stepwise increments of the Organic Loading Rate (OLR) from 1.2 to 7.5 gCODL-1day-1 were tested and biofilm formation was monitored for a period of 170 days alternating stages of addition or absence of nutrients and trace elements with the substrate. We concluded that the nutrients and trace elements addition to the reactor was essential to reduce the start-up and stabilization time because in the initial phase without them the reactor efficiency only reached 36% of COD removal despite the fact that pH value was stable and near to neutrality. Once the addition of nutrients and trace elements was made the COD removal sharply increased reaching values of 90% in only 30 days. After two more alternating periods of nutrients and trace elements suppression-addition the reactor performance related with the COD removal and biogas production showed a clear interaction between nutrients and trace elements addition and reactor stability.