Lowering Light output from CF bulb though rewiring ballast?

[Orion]

I've revived my 65 gallon for my Blue Acara and Gold Saum and I need a light. I'm not going to spend money on a new light, so I'd like to rig something up with the old one that I had on here.

Since plants will be basically non existent in this tank I just need the light for good viewing of the fish. I don't want to much or I'll end up with an algae farm.

Right now I've got one 55w CF light wired up. I don't really understand how the power consumption of these works, I know it's not like normal florescent though. At the moment I have the yellow and two red wires going to the live end cap. According to the wiring diagram on the manufactures website though, to do it 'properly' with one 55w I should have three red wires hooked up.

So my question is this: am I not getting as much power as 55w? Will I get less intense light if I took it down to just one red wire? Leaving it with two or one red wire, will this have any adverse affect on the bulb life, or any other dangers I don't know of?

I'd like to take it down to one red wire if possible to keep enough light to illuminate the tank well, but not enough to pose a significant chance of massive algae. I'll also look into getting a smaller wattage bulb, but as the tank is 3' long and 2' deep, not sure how well that would work out.

[epond83]

I don't know much about CF but i know regular florecent bulbs need a minimum amount of power to start up so i'm not really sure if what you want to do is possible.

But as i said not much experice with CF so good luck

[Orion]

True that on the normal ones, but I was thinking that the CF's basically had something like a starter built into the base that allowed them to start at lower wattage. I know there is some circuitry and stuff in the base.

lol, does it show that I'm no electrician?

[Pure]

O a simple "safe!" solution would be to wire it up the way it should be, but put some power reducing diodes in line with the bulb. You should be able to find them at radio shack.

[Orion]

Safe? What is this word Safe?

Oh I do love a trip to Radio Shack for goodies. Good call on the diodes though, I would have never have thought about that. I still want to look into it. I've actually since decided to change the fixture on my 75 gallon to 28w or 36w x2 and will end up using this ballast I think. I've already got a smaller ballast that I'm going to hook up for this bulb to replace. I have gotten so spoiled with how CF lights look that normal fluorescent fixtures just don't have the same 'pizaz'.