Another skimmer question

[Coralgurl]

I've got a reef octopus 5000 skimmer. It's been in my tank for a week or so but not at the proper water level, so today I built an egg crate stand for it. The skimmer is now sitting in the recommended 6" of water, but the water Draining out of the gate valve is obnoxious and I've got a ton of microbubbles. I've searched for info but can't find anything. Should I just drop the skimmer back as I had it or is the gate valve supposed to be out of the water and if so, how do I deal with this?