Are you asking about how to get these things (glass and water, for example) to look right in a SketchUp image? Or are you going to use a rendering plugin like Kerkythea, Vray, Maxwell, etc? Those are very, very different questions.
If it is just a SketchUp image, then to I don't think there is a point in asking for it to look "right", just how to make it look good. And good is subjective. So for a SketchUp image, I say use a single surface for water or a pane of glass and just adjust the transparency (different than translucency) until you like how it looks. The SketchUp image is, afterall, a conceptual representation, not intended to be realistic.
If you are going to use a rendering plugin, then you'll need to go looking in the appropriate forum, either here or one specific to the rendering plugin.
