The removal characteristics of As and Se ions from aqueous solution by hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (HTMAB) modified anthracite (HTMAB-AT) were investigated under various conditions of contact time, pH and temperature. When the pH is 6, the zeta potential value of anthracite (AT) is 24 mV and on the other hand, the zeta potential value of the HTMAB-AT is +44 mV. It can be seen that the overall increase of about 60 mV. Increasing the (+) potential value indicates that the surface of the adsorbent had a stronger positive charge, so adsorption for the anion metal was increased. The isotherm data was well described by Langmuir and Temkin isotherm model. The maximum adsorption capacity was found to be 7.81 and 6.89 mg/g for As and Se ions from the Langmuir isotherm model at 298 K, respectively. The kinetic data was tested using pseudo first and pseudo second order models. The results indicated that adsorption fitted well with the pseudo second order kinetic model. The mechanism of the adsorption process showed that adsorption was dependent on intra particle diffusion model according to two step diffusion. The thermodynamic parameters(ΔGo, ΔHo, and ΔSo) were also determined using the equilibrium constant value obtained at different temperatures. The thermodynamic parameters indicated that the adsorption process was physisorption, and also an endothermic and spontaneous process.