GaAs spacer thicknesses are varied to tune the coupling between InGaAs surface quantum dots (QDs) and multilayers of buried QDs. Temperature and excitation intensity dependence of the photoluminescence together with time resolved photoluminescence reveal that coupling between layers of QDs and consequently the optical properties of both the surface and the buried QDs significantly depend on the GaAs spacer. This work provides an experimental method to tune and control the optical performance of surface QDs.