T8 instant start reflector grounding.

2 electronic ballasts (Radionic EA217Z12-7, double F17T8) stripped
from
Lowes "Utilitech" double T8 fixtures, being used to build a 4-tube
plywood
aquarium hood. The lamps seemed to fire up fine so far without the
required grounded reflector (capacitance needed to ionize the gas, I
know) the first half dozen tries. How reliable will this be if I
don't ground
the reflector?

I know it's not hard, just a wire along the length of the tubes, but I
prefer
simple designs for the sake of fewer parts to fail, and more
important,
I'm lazy. Seemed like the tubes being within 1/2" of the ballasts
was
doing the trick.

.

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