The present study evaluates the feasibility of using a thermally activated fresh water weed in removing Cr(VI) from wastewater through column studies. The effect of flow rate, bed height and Cr(VI) concentration of the feed solution on the adsorption capacity of the activated weed was investigated. The adsorption capacity increased with decrease in both flow rate and bed height but increased with an increase in initial adsorbate concentration. Four different kinetic models, such as. Adams–Bohart, Bed Depth Service Time (BDST), Thomas and Yoon–Nelson models were first applied to the experimental data to predict the breakthrough curve and to determine the characteristic parameters of the column useful for designing large-scale column studies. Different statistical methods such as Sum of the Square of the Error (SSE), Sum of the Absolute Error (SAE), Average Relative Error (ARE), Average Relative Standard Error (ARS) and regression coefficient, were applied to evaluate the prominent and unique characteristic features of the experimental and predicted parameters under the respective models to find out the best fit. The performance stability of the adsorbent was tested by continuous adsorption–desorption studies.