If you are treating wastewater containing ammonia and want nitrogen removal, do you need nitrification first?

Question

If you are treating wastewater containing ammonia and don't want nitrogen in the effluent, do you need to have a nitrification process in place before the nitrogen removal stage?

Answer 1

Nitrification converts ammonium to nitrites then nitrates.
Denitrification then converts nitrates to nitrogen which is released into the atmosphere. The answer is 'Yes'!

Answer 2

Yes.

As nitrification converts this ammonia to nitrates and the release of Nitrogen could be done also during denitrification process.