Depth

How close to the surface of the water can I place lps,clams,softies or montipora? Will they naturally grow away from the surface? Im looking at most pics and Im seeing everything at least 2" from the top. Ill be using LED by the way. Im trying to figure out how high to make my rock structures, leaving room for the corals.

Your gonna need to acclimate everything to the LED's, once acclimated you
can move them around and see how they respond. Gonna depend also how deep a tank and also how high the LED fixture is off the water surface. Also depends on the LED's you will be using all LED fixtures are not created equally.

IF you have access to a par meter that is gonna be the best way.

As close as you want as long as they are acclimated to the light. When corals hit the surface, they will start growing outwards, it's kinda cool in my opinion.

clams can be close, as close as you want, to the surface. just acclimate them slowly to the high intensity.

Cool. Where do you buy a par meter?

Par meters arent cheep. This is what our local club has APG-MQ-200 Premium Aquatics - APG-MQ-200 Aquarium Supplies

Your best bet at getting one is to hook up with a reefing club and see if they have one that they rent or loan out.

About how close you can put stuff to the top, as close as you want in most cases but doing that limits how much of it you can see. For me i like to keep the rock low and let the corals grow up and fill the space.