thanks for your input guys but i'm considering a different approach now.
what about if i was to keep the same ballast, keep it directly wired to 2 bulbs and have the other 2 bulbs on independent switches? so basically 2 lights would be on by default, but then i could manually turn on the other one or two if need be. would that be easy enough and do you think it would work?
any thoughts would be appreciated?
i believe this is how it's wired (linear)...
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/alb...&pictureid=346