Aqua-Soft ForumsAqua In 3ds Max
I am not an editor of some sort but still i can design some neat stuff and by what you're saying i'm guessing you will need to edit your sphere with Photoshop whatever 3d program you're using.
make a sphere and aply an aqua texture. You might have to learn a little bit, as the 'make aqua sphere' button is well hidden.
you mite want to try making a material jsut using a bitmap or jpg of a aqua sphere you made in photoshop then in your material set the opacity map to fall off and maybe set the material as a phong turn up your specular to like 120 and your brigtness to 90, i just formated and cant find my max disk,i hope this is right but i can double check when get max installed again i was using version 5.1 hope this helps 
make a sphere with a cool looking texture and add lighting effects, you have to adjust where the light falls though and how much light.
You guys obviously know more than me: Should I use a Raytrace material for this purpose?
Look for a tutorial that tells you specific instructions on how to make a glass orb, once done just adjust the lighting highlight to resemble the "aqua" highlight.