Ok, I hope I can address some of your concerns... I wasnt representing SunAquatics products since they entered the market, I have only recently been distributing their products, I have no controll over previous dealings.

To answer some questions and concerns, I never said the bulbs were from Europe, I said they were European "Style" bulbs, as opposed to Americian style bulbs, and yes they are manufactured overseas. My understanding of the operation of the bulbs is as follows...
The SunAquatics bulbs are best run on an electronic pulse start ballast the same as other bulbs in this industry, quality non-electronic pulse start ballasts also seem to fire the bulbs well. They will run on many other types of ballast, but I can not say that they will for sure as they are not the reccomended style of ballast for said bulbs. To give an example, you could have 10 non-electronic, non-pulse start ballasts of the same brand lined up, and upon trying to fire a SunAquatics bulb on said ballasts, you could have mixed results. 4 of the said ballasts may fire the bulb great, and 6 might not fire the bulb so great, there seems to be variance among ballasts of the same type... You can take a SunAquatics bulb that fired up yellow on a regular ballasts, and when you fire that same bulb on an electronic pulse start, or other quality pulse start ballast, the bulb fires perfectly fine. It is my recomendation to only use a SunAquatics bulb on a minimum of a pulse start ballast, or an electronic pulse start ballast, this is the same recomendation I give to all the stores and wholesalers that we distribute the SunAquatics products to. Im sorry if you have had a bad experience with a compatibility problem in the past.
Regards: Kyle