The invention discloses a method for treating nickel-containing wastewater by using a composite adsorbent. The method comprises the following steps: mixing the nickel-containing wastewater with the composite adsorbent, carrying out oscillating at room temperature, carrying out solid-liquid separation to obtain preliminarily-treated wastewater, adjusting the pH value of the preliminarily-treated wastewater to 4-5, adding sodium hypochlorite, carrying out a stirring reaction, adding the composite adsorbent, conducting oscillating at room temperature, and carrying out solid-liquid separation to obtain secondarily-treated wastewater; adjusting the pH value of the secondarily-treated wastewater to 10.5-11.5, performing standing for precipitation, taking supernatant liquid, adding polyaluminum chloride, conducting stirring, adding polyacrylamide, performing stirring and standing, and carrying out solid-liquid separation to obtain tertiarily-treated wastewater; and mixing the tertiarily-treated wastewater with the composite adsorbent, conducting oscillating at room temperature, and carrying out solid-liquid separation, wherein the composite adsorbent is prepared by uniformly mixing modified sepiolite, acid-modified fly ash and cross-linked chitosan. The method for treating the nickel-containing wastewater by using the composite adsorbent provided by the invention is simple in process,has a better treatment effect on various forms of nickel in a water body, and is high in nickel removal rate.