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In this study, the simultaneous action of surfactant modified clinoptilolite (SMC) as adsorbent for dyes and its antibacterial activity was investigated. Methylene blue (MB) and acid orange 7 (AO7) represent cationic and anionic dyes, respectively were used as adsorbate in this study and the antibacterial activity was studied against Gram-negative (Escherichia coli ATCC 11229) and Grampositive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 and Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 2921). Initially, natural zeolite clinoptilolite was modified with 3 different concentrations (0.1, 1.0 and 4.0 mM) of cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (HDTMA-Br). The SMC samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), amount of HDTMA adsorbed and dispersion behaviour. Result from XRD shows that the HDTMA-Br molecules caused no effect on primary structure of the clinoptilolite since the clinoptilolite structure remained the same after modification with HDTMA-Br. Compared to the unmodified clinoptilolite, FTIR spectra of the SMC shows peak corresponds to CH stretches which proved the attachment of HDTMA onto the clinoptilolite surfaces. In the dispersion behaviour study, SMC samples were located at the adjacent phase between the water and oil mixture. The amount of HDTMA-Br adsorbed onto the clinoptilolite increased with the increasing concentrations of the surfactant. The use of SMC as adsorbent and antibacterial agent were further studied against the ionic dyes and bacteria simultaneously. The results show that the adsorption capacity of SMC towards both ionic dyes increase with …