The occurrence of various antibiotics in natural waters poses an emerging environmental concern. Tetracycline (TC) is a frequently used antibiotic in human therapy, veterinary industry, and agricultural sectors. In the current study, TC removal from aqueous solutions was studied using binary Nickel/nano zero valent iron particles (NiFe nano particles) and in-situ NiFe nanoparticles coated sand (IS-NiFe). Removal of TC using bimetallic NiFe particles was optimized with help of response surface methodology (RSM). Using the optimized parameters (concentration of TC: 20 mg/L; NiFe dose: 120 mg/L; time of interaction: 90 min), 99.43 ± 0.98% removal of TC was noted. Further, IS-NiFe was packed in the column reactors and effects of different parameters like flow rate (1–3 mL/min), bed height (3–10 cm) and inlet TC concentration (20–60 mg/L) on breakthrough characteristics were examined. Under the optimized conditions the removal capacity in the column reactor was 1198 ± 40.2 mg/g using IS-NiFe. The column kinetic data were successfully fitted with Adams- Bohart and Thomas models. TC removal efficiency of IS-NiFe in column reactors was tested with TC (20 mg/L) spiked lake water, ground water, and tap water and the removal capacity was noted to be 698.55 ± 11.21, 764.17 ± 6.78, and 801.7 ± 13.26 mg/g respectively. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd