These were my base settings..(which ones look suspect?)

LIGHT MODEL: global ambience
Spectral model "god rays out of the box sunset" (quality boost 8)
AMBIENT LIGHT: was at 27%
ANTI ALIASING: 77%  SET ON AuTOMATIC (Ultra)

Could be AA or spectral sunset? (Im used to 2:3 settings in Maya mental ray LOL)

would your recommend AA setting be similar to 2:3 ?

Do you prefer volumetric or spectral.....lights?

Also alot of settings in the Anti Aliasing box....

1. do you use automatic?
2. whats with subrays per pixel?
3. do I mess with texels per ray?

Quote - What light model are you using? I would recommend using GI.
What quality setting are you using in the Light tab of the atmosphere settings? I would recommend boosting this up. What level of ambient light are you using? The more ambient light you have, the more you have to boost this up.
What anti-aliasing settings are you using? For this scene, I would recommend not using any of the standard render settings but instead use "user settings" and manually increase AA to min=10, max=25, quality>85. I would recommend not using texture AA.
Are you using volumetric lights? Volumetric lights tend to produce more grain.
In the render settings, do not check "optimize volumetric lights" and do not check "optimize last render pass". In Vue language, "optimize" means less quality, generally speaking.