# Discussion: methods for removing contaminants and cross-talk

**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/discussion-methods-for-removing-contaminants-and-cross-talk/5626
**Category:** General Discussion
**Tags:** best-of-the-forum
**Created:** [August 16, 2018, 4:46pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/discussion-methods-for-removing-contaminants-and-cross-talk/5626 "2018-08-16T16:46:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 19

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### Author: ![Nicholas\_Bokulich](https://forum.qiime2.org/user_avatar/forum.qiime2.org/nicholas_bokulich/32/19937_2.png) [@Nicholas\_Bokulich](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/Nicholas_Bokulich)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/discussion-methods-for-removing-contaminants-and-cross-talk/5626/19 "2019-01-10T14:20:23Z")

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Cross-referencing another post here. @Mechah provided some great discussion of his lab's protocols for contaminant removal from low-biomass samples in this topic:

> [@Tutorial for filtering controls](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/tutorial-for-filtering-controls/557/9):
>
> Hi Jia, sorry for my late reply due to the Christmas break… How to handle controls in our NGS projects is still a matter of debate in our lab. However, from my point of view I would suggest to do the following (I’ll only tackle data handling and won’t mention wet lab methods to get rid of the “kitome” in this post): First of all you should process as many controls as possible. I would consider negative controls (NTCs, field blanks etc.), positive controls (DNA of mock communities), and DNA ex…

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