To investigate the effects of centrifugal separation speed and time on the determination results of ammonia nitrogen, referring to the HJ 535-2009 Water Quality Determination of Ammonia Nitrogen Nessler's Reagent Spectrophotometry, 4 rotational speeds (1 000, 2 000, 3 000, and 4 000 r/min) and 6 time durations (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 min) were set, totaling 24 treatments. The absorbance values of water samples with different turbidities (4.1, 18 and 30 NTU) were measured, and Grubbs' one-sided test was used for mean value testing. The spike recovery rates under optimal treatment conditions were calculated. Meanwhile, the effects of 4 pretreatment methods raw water, centrifugal separation, flocculation precipitation, and flocculation precipitation + centrifugal separation on the ammonia nitrogen content of the water samples were compared. The results showed that the minimum absorbance values for the 3 water samples with turbidities of 4.1, 18 and 30 NTU were 0.183, 0.091 and 0.102, respectively, all corresponding to a rotational speed of 4 000 r/min and a time of 4 min. The mean test values G6 for time were 1.563, 1.280, and 1.524, and the mean test values G4 were 1.258, 1.333, and 1.147, respectively. The spike recovery rates for the 3 water samples pretreated with flocculation precipitation + centrifugal separation (4 000 r/min, 4 min) ranged from 98% to 102%. The ammonia nitrogen content of the same water sample, as determined by the four different pretreatment methods, ranked from high to low as follows: raw water > centrifugal separation > flocculation precipitation > flocculation precipitation + centrifugal separation. The comprehensive results indicate that the pretreatment method combining flocculation sedimentation and centrifugal separation demonstrates optimal effectiveness in removing turbidity interference for ammonia nitrogen measurement. Under the experimental conditions of this study, the recommended centrifugation parameters are 4 000 r/min for 4 minutes.