To save money, you can buy a jar of spirulina powder at most any vitamin store. You don't have to culture any phyto and it grows my newly hatched brine shrimp to breeding size in under a month. I've hatched one batch of baby brine and it has been self sustaining now for 10 months. I'm about to begin mysid propagation and those require baby brine as a food source.
I also culture pods and, while their propagation is almost identical to brine...easier, actually; you cannot grow them out together. The brine grow much faster and would dominate the food consumption. Once you've grown brine, you'll have a decent base of knowledge for most of the others in this food category
