In this study, the strong-acid polystyrene resin D001 was modified by impregnation with metal ions Fe3+, Cu2+, and Zn2+ to prepare new kinds of sorbents. The modified D001 was characterized by N2 sorption–desorption isotherms, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The sorption performance of the metal modified resins for removal of antibiotics tetracycline (TC) and doxycycline (DC) from aquatic environment was investigated and excellent sorption capability with more than 98% removal ratio was observed for these resins after modification. Although these modified resins also presented pH-dependent sorption, they showed much better flexibility with pH fluctuation than those of the unmodified original D001, and extremely strong sorption capability was exhibited in a wide range of pH 2–8 for both TC and DC. Pseudo-second-order kinetic equation described the sorption process more reasonably than pseudo-first-order equation. Langmuir isotherm model provided the best match to the equilibrium data with monolayer maximum sorption capacity of 417–625 mg g−1 under 288–318 K. The sorption capacity decreased with the increase of ionic strength of NaCl. The main sorption mechanism was proposed to be surface complexation, cation bridge interaction and electrostatic attraction/competition between antibiotics and metal modified resins. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41803.