2nd Batch Paranoia

Hi i'm new to kombucha making and this forum. i just finished my first batch of bucha (with lots of help from BK Kombucha's starter kit!) and now that i'm making my second batch without the starter ingredients, i feel like i took off the training wheels. I'm nervous because i threw away the mother SCOBY and kept the "baby" which looked pretty healthy. but now that i'm looking at it 24 hours later it looks different. it's all floppy. i used english breakfast tea that we had laying around and plain purified white sugar. I also just used tap water. is all of this okay? I feel kinda paranoid because i don't want to kill my scoby right off the bat. thanks!

Looks ok to me.
Ive made kombucha with pure spring water, organic loose tea and organic cane sugar and with chlorinated tap water, red rose teabags and bleached white table sugar.
I found no discernible difference in scoby growth or the end product taste.
Over time with lower quality ingredients, the yeast / bacteria balance can be thrown off and need some babying, but for your second batch I'd say you're ok

I am starting and it is my second day of brewing. So far in all my reading, they just mention tea (mostly black), sugar, and water. They do often mention 'distilled water.' I believe this is because distilled is the most flavor-less and germ free you can get. Keeping random bacteria and germs out of the kombucha as it ferments is really important.

Probably the most important thing is to add some of the old batch as starter tea in the new batch. Did you do that? You have to get the PH down to prevent mold. Other than that, it's pretty hard to hurt it unless you add hot tea and kill the yeast. I think 120 will do it, so keep it under 100 to be safe.

Unless you have bad/unsafe tap water, it should be fine, especially if you are boiling it when you make tea. I use spring water because it tastes better and we always have it on hand.

I always use at least 2 black tea bags per gallon batch, but sometimes mix it with green tea. The black seems to make it ferment better. But you can use a mix of green or black as well as herbal.

The floppy SCOBY is fine and if it sinks, a new one will form at the top.

Some people make it with only starter tea (which has the culture in it) and throw out the SCOBY.

On the tap water: If you boil the water first, then let it cool, or worst case scenario, just pour it into a bucket, cover with cloth, and allow it to stand 24 hours, you will remove "most" of the chlorination. If you can invest in a Brita filter, that is a good thing too, for ridding the most immediate problems. Chlorine is put in water to kill bacteria and such, so it would not be good to use it in brewing.