Big fish business: 'What's the Big Idea' winner talks aquarium invention - Knoxville News Sentinel

Posted: 14 Jun 2021 07:00 PM PDT

Brandon Schreiber, founder of Leviathan Aquarium and Automation, talks about his circuit board and winning What's the Big Idea. Knoxville News Sentinel

Brandon Schreiber has been hooked on aquariums since a scuba diving trip to celebrate his high school graduation.

"All the fish, the corals, it was all so awesome, and I knew I wanted an aquarium at some point. I was really idealistic, but once I got my first aquarium I thought, 'Wow, this is actually a ton of work to keep alive,'" Schreiber told Knox News.

"It became more of a chore than something I enjoyed, so I started trying to apply things that I learned throughout school and work to make it a little easier to manage."

The automation engineer ended up creating the first prototype of his Leviathan circuit board, which he described as "a baseball of tangled wires." Over the course of two years, though, Schreiber reworked the product and founded Leviathan Aquarium Automation, a company specializing in making the aquarium hobby easier for enthusiasts.

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Brandon Schrieber holds one of his Leviathan Aquarium and Automation circuit boards May 5 at his home in Halls, Tenn. Schreiber is the winner of the What's the Big Idea pitch competition.

(Photo: Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel)

After initial success on an online fundraising site, Schreiber entered the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center's 2021 What's the Big Idea business pitch competition. He was selected as one of five finalists, and a week later, Schreiber earned $10,000 to further his venture.

"It's all kind of unreal," Schreiber said. "It started out as something I was working on to make my life easier, but now this board has the ability to save others so much time, money and worry. And it goes beyond hobby. Leviathan could be used to solve serious issues across industries."

What is Leviathan, and how does it work?

Leviathan is a sticky-note-sized circuit board that allows aquarium owners to easily monitor and maintain almost every aspect of their tanks. Although it's a bit complex for the average goldfish bowl, Leviathan automates things like pH and water level as well as equipment operation for those with large aquarium setups.

Schreiber and Kristine Verzonilla, Leviathan's head of sales and Schreiber's wife, builds each pre-soldered and populated board by hand and sells them for $45, a fraction of the competitor cost, which can be as high as $1,400. Without a system like Leviathan and proper manual maintenance, the majority of fish die within their first year and owners may have to deal with damage caused by fires or flooding.

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Leviathan is a sticky-note-sized circuit board that allows aquarium owners to easily monitor and maintain almost every aspect of their tanks.

(Photo: Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel)

Leviathan operates using Reef-Pi, an open-source software already configured for the board. All users have to do is plug in the board and turn it on. In case new owners have issues, Schreiber includes a step-by-step guide with each purchase and invites them to join the Leviathan Facebook Group to help users automate their aquariums.

And the application doesn't end at aquariums. Leviathan can be implemented in aquaponic gardening, brewing and even boating industries.

"Anybody can use it for really anything that's water-related that needs monitoring or control," Schreiber said. "It allows you to use the different sensors and outputs to really set up whatever you need. They're simple features, but it lets you combine them in a lot of different ways."

Why Knoxville?

Schreiber first visited Knoxville as a fifth-grade student participating in Destination Imagination, a STEAM team competition. Schreiber said he fell in love with the city and decided to settle in Knoxville after graduating from Tennessee Technological University.

He didn't realize his passions of engineering and aquariums would intersect at the same place.

"Knoxville is actually the perfect home base for Leviathan, not only because we're the Maker City, but because we have multiple thriving businesses solely dedicated to the aquarium hobby," Schreiber said in his pitch. "That healthy community is reflected in online aquarium club forums where Middle and East Tennessee are the two most active in the entire country."

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Brandon Schrieber, founder of Leviathan Aquarium and Automation, works on a circuit board design at his home in Halls, Tenn.

(Photo: Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel)

Schreiber told Knox News he's not sure why this area is so active in the aquarium online forums, but he's grateful for the community it's given him. From hosting club coral swaps to becoming Leviathan customers, East Tennessee aquarium hobbyists have supported Schreiber's passion since day one.

Now that he's competed in the What's the Big Idea competition, Schreiber has gained even more interest and aid in Knoxville.

"One of the biggest takeaways from the week is the continued support and contacts through KEC," Schreiber said.

"I've met investors, people in retail or distribution chains, manufacturing, all of that. I have no idea how to approach a lot of aspects of business because I've never done any of that, but these people have already had one or multiple successful businesses that do that exact sort of thing. They might not have dealt with this exact product, but they know what to do, who to get ahold of and what the process is like. It's made the entire process significantly less overwhelming."

What's next for Leviathan

Before What's the Big Idea, Schreiber said he was hoping hobbyists would come across his automation board on a "random corner of the internet." He's improved his branding, but now it's time to invest in the longevity of Leviathan.

Schreiber will use about $4,000 of the prize money to pay for a patent on his product and split the rest of the earnings on marketing efforts and soldering supplies. The winnings will set Schreiber up for scaled growth, which could lead to him hiring more help.

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Brandon Schrieber holds one of his Leviathan Aquarium and Automation circuit boards.

(Photo: Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel)

He's starting small, though. Schreiber is finalizing Leviathan's 1.1 design, which cuts the number of parts on the board by more than half, and will take pre-orders for the product soon. In 2022, Schreiber wants to be established in brick-and-mortar and online aquarium stores. Five years from now, Leviathan could go from hobbyists' homes to hatchery warehouses.

"I hope to be established in at least three different industries — aquariums, aquaponics and boating. I also want to make a specialized board for each of (the industries)," Schreiber said. "And I'd definitely like to be established on not so much the hobbyist side of things, but the supplier side of things."

The Leviathan Board and Kraken Board, an unpopulated version of the original, are available for purchase at leviathanautomation.com. Follow Leviathan Aquarium Automation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates.

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