C/N rates can greatly influence efficiency of denitrification. It is difficult for current treated effluent to reach GB18918-2002 primary effluent standard because of its low C/N rate. To improve the efficiency of denitrification, the quality of effluent, and realize the waste recycling, this article selected magnolia leaves and degradable meal box as the solid carbon source for periodic denitrification stage to study the change of NO3--N, TN, COD, NO2--N, NH4+, PO43- and color. The results showed that in the condition of influent nitrate concentration of 40 mg/L, carbon dosage of 10 g, the reaction temperature of 25°C the nitrate removal rates of magnolia leaves and degradable meal box reached 89.0% and 56.3% respectively, and the TN removal rates reached 91.7% and 53.9% respectively. But in the aspect of final treated effluent COD concentration level, magnolia leaves experiment (608 mg/L) was much higher than the degradable meal box (78 mg/L). Besides, the accumulation of nitrite, the released concentration of ammonia nitrogen and phosphate of magnolia leaves experiment were also higher than the degradable meal box. Under the integrated analysis, the magnolia leaves are more suitable than the degradable meal box as the denitrification external carbon source.