About to try a secondary ferment with water kefir. I have some questions…..

I am making my very first batch of water kefir - 30oz of spring water, 1 Tbs organic molasses, 1/4C organic cane sugar.  
For my secondary fermentation, I was going to add organic tart cherry juice and (maybe) some smashed knobs of ginger.

The tart cherry juice I have is a concentrated form where two (2) Tbs provides one serving of 14g of sugar.  Picture attached.

I was thinking of adding the 2 Tbs of tart cherry concentrate, 15ml of my kefir, then another 15ml of water.  Will this be an okay combination for the 2ndary ferment?  Is adding a concentrated juice an okay sugar source for the grains?

Also if I look at my initial ferment, the color is quite dark because of the molasses.  Should it get lighter in color as the sugar is being consumed?  This is what it looked like after mixing everything (Day 0).  I ask because it hasn’t really lightened up in color as the ferment goes into the second day.

Any advice would be appreciated.

How long has the primary ferment been going for? I'm not seeing any bubbles there or floating grains?
If these are new grains, you may not get decent water kefir from the first batch. I always used to water my blueberries with the first batch, and give new grains a couple of cycles of feeding in a new home so they could wake up and get active.
Also, how much actual grains are in there? I never used that much molasses, because I used organic demerara sugar or raw sugar, which is a light brown sugar with some of the molasses left in. I always used half a cup of sugar and half a cup of kefir grains per litre of water.  It sounds a lot of sugar, but I've always used equal amounts sugar and kefir grains for the primary ferment and it works well. They got two days in the primary ferment. Then I'd strain off the grains and start them again with the sugar water mix so the garins are always well fed and happy.
The water kefir at that stage was waaaaaay too sweet and not really bubbly, either. In the secondary ferment, the organisms in the water kefir will use up much of the remaining sugar so you end up with that lovely sweet/sour tang. I only ever added juice or fruit to the secondary ferment, so juice never went near my grains. I didn't always add fruit to the secondary ferment. It's nice, but not essential, as there will be enough sugars already there for the organisms to feed on.
The question about the liquid getting lighter as it ferments - no, it won't happen! The brown color from molasses or raw sugar is minerals and other stuff in the molasses, not the sugar itself.  As the sugar gets used up, you may notice dark spots in the grains as they concentrate the minerals. But the fluid won't get a lot lighter.
If this is the first batch, I'd suggest not trying a secondary ferment yet. Discard the fluid you strain off the grains, give them more sugar water with a bit more sugar and less molasses (they need some minerals, but too much can overwhelm them), and hopefully in two more days they will have woken up enough for a secondary ferment to go well.

Should be fine. I never really measure the juice when I do the second ferment, instead I just think about the sweetness of whatever fruit or juice I'm adding and adjust accordingly, eyeballing about 1 part juice/fruit to 6 parts first ferment water kefir for most juices. Also, if I find the second ferment too sweet, simply putting the cap back on and setting it back in the fridge to give it a bit longer resolves the problem. Having said that, my son once innocently opened a bottle of blueberry water kefir he'd found in the back of the fridge and we ended up with a lovely geyser hitting the ceiling. Quite exciting! Another nice option- add a few herbs to your second ferment along with the juice. We've had some deliciously grown-up tasting ferments doing this- mint, anise hyssop, rosemary, or basil can lend a bit of sophistication to second ferments.

Thank you for both of your responses.  To address some of your comments -

The picture included in my original post was taken a few minutes AFTER I mixed my sugar solution with the kefir grains so I wouldn’t  anticipate seeing any bubbling right away.  The picture I have included with this reply is about 48hrs into the first ferment.  You can see bubbles at the top, the kefir grains looking larger and, though you may not be able to see it, there are just a few kefir grains floating in the medium.  

This solution has ~1/3C kefir grains from Florida Sun Kefir.  I let them sit in mineral water for 20mins before putting them into this sugar solution.  The original instructions from FSK said to add two tsp of molasses, but I added 1 Tbs (3 tsp).  I hope I didn’t overwhelm my grains.  In the instructions, it was also related that the solution would be lighter in color.

Also, I’m not a fan of carbonated drinks.  I was going to use aerobic fermentation (no lids) to make my secondary kefir and hopefully minimize the fizziness.

It looks like I may have to wait another day(?) before trying a 2nd ferment?

That's looking nice and healthy! You are probably fine to try a second ferment, in that case.  Mine always took a few cycles to settle down and get fermenting well.
If you use open jars for the second ferment, the final result should be minimally fizzy. If you find it's still more carbonated than you like, reducing the molasses will help with that.
LOL, and now I want to get making water kefir again! I haven't done any fermenting for a while.

Jane Mulberry wrote:If you find it's still more carbonated than you like, reducing the molasses will help with that.
LOL, and now I want to get making water kefir again! I haven't done any fermenting for a while.

Do I still need to add some molasses to the 2nd ferment to get the grains to work well?

Thank you for your assessment.  I was concerned that my grains weren’t working as well as they should, but then again, I was under the impression the solution would be a little lighter but it’s not the case so far.  

I guess I’m in this experimentation purgatory where i don’t know what’s going to work well with these active grains, ie how much of a certain sugar or fruit juice to add.  I don’t really care for it tasting sweet if the tradeoff is I’m ingesting a great deal of good probiotic cultures for my body.   I was trying to find a reliable ratio or range of either fruit juice or additional sugar to 1st fermentation to have a successful overall ferment.

You won't need molasses in the secondary ferment, no. There are no grains in that, remember, just the fluid you strain off the grains which, once your grains are well established, will have probiotic microorganisms in it that grow from the first ferment. You can even do a secondary ferment with nothing extra added at all, as there is likely to be enough sugar still in the water to feed the lactobacilli and yeasts. The fruit is as much for flavoring as to feed them.
I wouldn't expect the first batch to have a lot of organisms, but as you keep going, each batch will have more.
I hope it goes well for you!
Molasses generally - I only ever gave my grains molasses if they seemed to need more minerals - slow activity, just generally seeming a bit listless.

Just thought I would share with you my experience when transferring my water kefir to smaller mason jars for the 2nd ferment.  

So in my initial ferment, I started with about 1/3C of grains.  After filtering off the kefir, it looked my grains grew to ~1C  so I partitioned half into a different 32oz mason jar.  To each, I added another sugar water solution of 1/4C organic sugar with ~30oz of water.  I didn’t have spring water available, but I did have Reverse Osmosis water.  I had read that RO water doesn’t have any minerals the grains need to thrive, however I did have concentrace, a liquid mineral supplement.  After much googling, 1/8 of a tsp or 12 drops of this mineral supplement was advised.

I’ll have to see if there will be another adjustment period for these guys to grow and thrive.

That's great that they grew so fast! The molasses or added minerals tends to encourage them to multiply fast.