You have said that the water takes up more space as there is more aether in it, though I may be remembering wrong.
objectivity against subjectivity. this is why i prefer to talk about aether. when we say 'space' we can mean the fundamental substance, or we can refer to distances within set parameters.
for example, to use aetheric transmission, the diameter of the earth is set. that distance is something huge, call it d. however, that distance is also essentially zero, if you cross it at the equator, because the space there is thinner: the distance of near-zero is stretched out. space is the fabric, and is also the distance, but it seems absurd to say 'space occupies more space'. it doesn't matter whether you take my theory as truth, so long as you understand that principle.
something can look like it takes up more room (subjectively) when objectively it takes up the same amount of space, it is just the space itself that swells.
a bubble might be a good analogy here. the amount of water stays constant, but it looks like it grows when you blow on it.