It's a ________ (fill in the blank) setup for a cheap price. With that said, the way we start to calculate on how to design an aeration system for a pond is how many gallons of water each diffuser membrane moves to the surface per minute.
Now if you can figure that out you can compare that to the Vertex diffusers.
Us pond professionals that are paid to figure out aeration systems for peoples ponds can't do what you are doing. If we design and sell something and it doesn't work or the customer has a fish kill, who foots the bill? The customer that didn't want to spend the money for a system with R&D/Testing behind it or the company that built the system? If we did something like you did, and the glue comes apart, it costs us to go back and fix it, or do we tell the customer that they have to fix it? The DIY guys don't figure in labor and miles traveled to do the work, they are doing it in their spare time.
I'd be curious to see what the diffuser cost you if you take your hourly rate (what you get paid for working) and multiply that by the time you have building the diffuser and connections, plus the time you spent looking up where and what to buy to build it. Then add in the actual materials. Even the water bottle top. Now, what did that diffuser cost?
