Editorial standards
How we research, source & fact-check
In reefkeeping the numbers are life-or-death — salinity, alkalinity, calcium, dosing. Care information is only worth anything if you can trust it, so here's exactly how Coralkin's guides are researched, what we check them against, and how we stay honest about our limits.
The sourced gate: nothing published until it's checked
Every care number on Coralkin — minimum tank sizes, water-parameter targets (salinity, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate, phosphate, pH), lighting and flow, dosing amounts — has to be fact-checked against an authoritative source before it goes live. A species page only shows its full care specs once that's done; until then it says the guide is still in progress. We would rather show less than show something we haven't verified. Right now 72 of 72 specieshave passed that gate.
The same rule governs our tools: every calculator derives its result from real, cited chemistry or from the same fact-checked care sheets — the dosing maths is stoichiometry from published reef-chemistry work, not a guess, and each tool is checked against known benchmarks.
Voice-of-customer — what reef keepers ask and worry about online — tells us what to write about. It is never our source for what's true. The demand comes from the community; the facts come from the authorities below.
The authorities we check against
Our care numbers, chemistry and health claims are checked against recognised marine-aquarist and veterinary references, including:
- Reef chemistry: the published reef water-chemistry work of Randy Holmes-Farley and reference houses such as Bulk Reef Supply — the basis of our salinity, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium and dosing figures.
- Marine husbandry: WetWebMedia (Bob Fenner) and other established marine-aquarium references for species care, tank sizes and compatibility.
- Taxonomy & natural range: the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) for scientific names and classification.
- Fish health: the aquatic-veterinary literature and bodies (e.g. WAVMA) and standard references such as Noga's Fish Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment for disease, quarantine and welfare.
- Safety: published toxicology and poison-control guidance for hazards that harm the keeper — above all palytoxin on zoanthids and related soft corals.
- Sustainable sourcing: captive-breeding programmes such as ORA and Biota, so we can steer you to aquacultured livestock over wild-caught.
- Primary scientific literature and peer-reviewed studies where available, cited directly.
Every species guide ends with a “Sources & further reading” block naming what it was written and fact-checked against, so you can follow the trail yourself.
Our integrity rules
- Never fabricate a number. Reef chemistry is unforgiving, so every figure traces to a cited authority — and if we can't verify it, we leave it out rather than guess.
- Triage, never diagnose. We help you tell normal from a red flag and decide when to act — we don't diagnose illness or prescribe treatment, and we send you to an aquatic vet or experienced reefer when that's the right call.
- Safety first. Where a hazard can harm you — palytoxin above all — we say so plainly and up front.
- Test, don't guess. Before any "fix", we check the water, because most reef problems trace to water quality and stability. Our guides teach the current evidence-based standard and correct outdated store advice — kindly, and with the reason why.
- Everything agrees. Our articles, tools and care sheets are built to never contradict each other on the same fact — the calculators literally share the sourced data behind the guides.
- Belonging over gatekeeping. We explain the jargon instead of hiding behind it. You belong here from your first clownfish to your first coral.
Health content & our review status
Health and safety guidance on Coralkin is written and fact-checked by the Coralkin team against the authorities above, but it is not yet veterinary-reviewed — so if your fish or coral shows the signs we describe, quarantine and get an aquatic/exotics vet or an experienced reefer on it rather than relying on an article alone.
We're working toward named veterinary and expert review of our health content. When a qualified aquatic vet has genuinely reviewed a specific guide, it will carry a “✔ Reviewed by [name]” line — and you'll only ever see that line when it is truly earned. We will never fake a review or a credential.
We keep it current — and we fix mistakes
Reefkeeping best practice keeps evolving, and so do our guides. Evergreen reference pages carry no fake "published" date; where a guide is genuinely dated or updated, we show it honestly.
Found an error, or something that's fallen out of date? Please tell us. We'll check it against our sources and correct it promptly — a good correction makes the guide better, and we're grateful for every one.
📧 hello@coralkin.com · more about who we are on theAbout page.