I fixed the spray problem.  I had the particle distribution set way
too high, so all I was getting was a fine mist.
the Isonsurfaces, it turns out, aren't the culprits.  Most of the 36 hr
render time was taken up by the water texture and the glass.
    The glass texture is straight out of glass.inc, I use the F_Glass6
finish and the I_Glass_Exp interior with a Clear pigment

    The water is a difference (I cut out the shapes of sumberged objects
to prevent co-incident surfaces and to keep the water out of places it
wasn't supposed to be.  And, as I didn't want to use the one out of
textures inc, I created my own water texture:

#declare MyWater =
texture {
    pigment { Clear }
    finish {
        reflection { 0.3, 0.6 fresnel }
        ambient 0.05
        diffuse 0.2
        conserve_energy
        }
    }

    Additionally, I use an interior:

interior {
    fade_power 1001
    fade_distance 17.5*ft // ft = 12
    caustics 0.625
    }

    Not surprisingly, the Spray is what takes the largest ammount of
time to render. This may have something to do with the somewhat high
max_trace_level I specified to avoid black spots (max_trace_level 10, I
couldn't figure out what the default is.)

    In keeping with my meticulous attention to detail, the fountain
tower is fastened together in several places with bolts, and there are
glass light covers, such as might be found covering lights in a swimming
pool, in the basin.  I intend to place small gas flames behind the
ornamental grill at the base with light sources to illuminate the water
from undernieth, as the final render will probably be a Night or early
morning scene.

    I also added my water texture to the fountain spray, as I wasn't
happy with the one built into the macro. (I'm currently using the
somewhat outdated, but adequite, Liquid Spray include file by Chris
Colefax)

I get odd results when rendering with photons, though.  It seems to
treat the transparent surfaces as though they were opaque (that is, the
surfaces are still transparent, but the light doesn't seem to get
through.  I get a solid shadow on the ground to the left instead of
having a lighter area for the dome, and a colored shadow for the
crystal.), and nothing I do fixes the problem.  If anyone has an Idea
about what I can do to fix this, I'd appreciate suggestions.

ADB

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