Those that know me know how much I hate the terms "SPS" and "LPS". Partly because they are pretty meaningless, but mostly because of all the generalisations that are often present in sentences containing one or both terms.
So called "SPS" are found over a wide range of depths, not just in shallow water/high light. Paradoxically, corals with smaller polyps are more dependent on light for energy and this has led to them being better able to acclimatise to varying conditions of light, including low light. For example,
Stylophora pistillata probably has the widest vertical distribution of any coral living in conditions spread over 2 orders of magnitude of lighting.
Here are some photographs from my dives on the reef showing the "SPS" corals at depth:
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/Tr...lty_Ancho.html http://www.petsforum.com/personal/Tr...orth_Horn.html http://www.petsforum.com/personal/Tr...ralty_Anc.html
Some of the colonies at 20 to 30 metres depth are quite colourful, despite the fact that there is less than 20% surface irradiation at these depths. This suggest to me that intensity isn't the only factor in colouration - and may not be much of a factor at all.
One of my tanks is only lit by four 36/40W and I've had some very colourful corals:
Note these are the actual colours and there was no manipulation of the colours in post processing.