The purpose of the study is to understand the ecological characteristics of the early stage of community formation of epilithic diatoms. The samples were daily collected from a site of the Kumho River during 70 days from October 13 to December 21 in 2002. Total 126 diatom taxa collected in the study were classified into 114 species and 12 varieties belonging to 26 genera. About 80% of the taxa collected from the artificial substrata during the whole studying period were observed until tenth day from the start time of the study. In the study the successional process of the diatom community was divided into the three stages of the early, the middle and the later by cluster analysis based on the similarities in species composition among the communities. Cocconeis placentula Ehrenb. and C. placentula var. lineata (Ehrenb.) V.H., horizontally positioned species, would be divided into the early successional species, and Diatoma vulgre Bory, vertically positioned species, was the later successional species. Cell densities and species composition of the diatoms on the artificial substrata were closely similar to them of natural substrata after 40th day from the start time of the study.