Hi Monika, I apologize for the delay in responding to your question and hope that your sourdough starter has taken off rising by now. If this isn't the case, then I would definitely suggest trying to feed it twice a day with either whole wheat or whole rye flour until your starter is rising well again, and then gradually shift back into feeding with AP flour. The grey layer you're seeing is called "hooch," and you can stir it in or skim it off, either way should work fine. If you're worried about going through too much flour you can reduce these feedings to quite a small amount (see our Smaller Starter recipe and blog post), and then increase the quantity of your starter once it's rising well, and you're ready to take on a bread recipe. Recent conversations with microbiologist, Debra Wink, have made me more confident in saying that the starter creation process doesn't require vast amounts of flour, and it's fine to reduce the size of your starter during this period. I hope this helps! Let me know how it goes. 

Barb

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