Wiring Help - Mixed ballasts

[axlroh]

Have a couple of questions regarding grounding wires. I'm finishing up my first diy hood with 2x54W T5 retrofit and NO fluorescent tube (48" 40W which I yanked out of the strip light that came with my 55G). A strange mix perhaps, but instead of adding a second 2x54W T5 set, I wanted to see how the combo of 2 T5's and a single NO fluorescent would do first.

Both ballasts are located 4' away from the hood, and in the case of the NO fluorescent, I get about 3 seconds of flicker before the 40W bulb comes on. I didn't heed the warning about mounting the tubes within 1/2" of the grounded reflector, so I asked for it. I believe the NO ballast was screwed on to the strip light and connected to the reflector originally (no flicker when starting). Any workarounds to this? Other than the flicker, does this cause any other grounding related problems? The ground wire (green) on the NO fluorescent power cable is screwed onto the ballast for now.

Both T5 bulbs come on just fine, but I still have one part of the T5 ballast wiring "socket" empty, which is the "G", and both the "N" and "L" are filled (one end of the Triad Universal ballast). The green wire coming out of the T5 ballast power cable has a round screw eye, so I attached it to the T5 ballast when I screwed the ballast itself down. Do I need to run a wire out of the "G" socket on this ballast?

Thanks for any help,
Axl

[BoomerD]

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