Ballast Differences

Assuming that we are talking about the choke-type ballasts, I don't think that there are any important differences. I have seen, and wired up myself, many of both types of tubes. Just match the ballast rating to the lamp power.

Fluorescent lamps are UV plasma devices. It is the fluorescent powder on the inside of the tube that determines the "color" or spectral output. The lime glass used in most fluorescent lamps filters out a large part of the UV that gets past the powder.

A ballast is designed to provide a load current at some expected lamp voltage based on the desired operating conditions or design parameters of the lamp. The coils in the lamp serve as excitation devices (due to heating of the cathode material) as well as electrodes. The coils provide the interface between electrical conductors and the gas plasma. Some types of fluorescent lamps use a "cold" cathode which is heated up by the impact of electrons leaving the plasma but otherwise has no other means of being heated. Those lamps require a higher open circuit voltage to initiate the arc from which the plasma is set up.

The variables that determine the electrical characteristics of the lamp tube include bulb diameter and length (usually the most important), buffer gas pressure and type(buffer being a noble gas like neon, argon, krypton, or xenon), and desired lumen output or loading usually in the form of lamp current.