How do you make a florescent tube light go pink or dimmer in a very short amount of time or have a burnout. I see videos on people using brand new bulbs and they turn it on and it begins to burnout on the ends of the tube. I just enjoy watching them burnout.
Thanks

Put them on the incorrect gear such as a 400w HPS ballast. As for making them pink, I don't know.

Connecting the lamp with a MOT will do the job as seen on this video

A MOT is a Microwave Oven Transformer. If you leave it too much time the tube will actually melt down like in the video, but it will fastly reach EOL.

But the point was to make them EOL in an exact specific way, to reach certain EOL effect, not killing it for good at once.
I guess the only possible way would be faking the EOL by a specially constructed effect (dimmable, with some pattern generating MCU) ballast.

Definitely when making these effect, don't expect the lamps to last long, in general...

Would a 150 watt hps ballast do the trick? I know it’s not 400W HPS but I think it would make it reach eol quicker. Thank you for all of your help tho!

@LucasColley:
Are you wanting to EOL it - as in make the end go black/dead filament, so you can watch it go through the burn-out process?
Or are you simply wanting to make it go 'mercury starved' ie: pink (but not necessarily EOL it)?

I’m mainly just trying to make it go mercury starved but not necessarily killing it. But if there’s no way to do that then I’ll eol it.

@LucasColley:
Are you wanting to EOL it - as in make the end go black/dead filament, so you can watch it go through the burn-out process?
Or are you simply wanting to make it go 'mercury starved' ie: pink (but not necessarily EOL it)?

Go to the maintenance personnel of any place that uses tubes of the type you want, and where you happened to see starved tubes, ask for EOL tubes, sort through what you get to fing starved tubes. Or take tubes from recycling center

On 230V Switchstart magnetic gear only : Add a rectifier bridge after the ballast, but before the tube. It will eventually make all mercury go to one side. If you want the tube to last for any significant time in this mode, you must underdrive it by using a ballast with lower current. Many starters won't be able to start the tube in one polarity and will overheat and be destroyed in the attempt - Your safest bet is manual preheat. If using a starter is necessary, use a starter with bimetals on both glow lamp electrodes or give attention to the starter polarity

Put the tube in the freezer and it will be a little Mercury starved (for a while before it warms back up)

Ok do you have the links on where I can get that stuff?

Go to the maintenance personnel of any place that uses tubes of the type you want, and where you happened to see starved tubes, ask for EOL tubes, sort through what you get to fing starved tubes. Or take tubes from recycling center

On 230V Switchstart magnetic gear only : Add a rectifier bridge after the ballast, but before the tube. It will eventually make all mercury go to one side. If you want the tube to last for any significant time in this mode, you must underdrive it by using a ballast with lower current. Many starters won't be able to start the tube in one polarity and will overheat and be destroyed in the attempt - Your safest bet is manual preheat. If using a starter is necessary, use a starter with bimetals on both glow lamp electrodes or give attention to the starter polarity

Put the tube in the freezer and it will be a little Mercury starved (for a while before it warms back up)

And if I put my t8 bulb on a t12 ballast will that also shorten the life of it?

You have a few options:
 - Run constantly for a while and wait. This will give it more of a natural EOL.
 - Run it the same way but constantly switch it on and off with time for it to cool down because the sputtering occurs most when it is cold.
 - Put the lamp on higher wattage gear. For where I live for a 18W / 20W I'd run it on 36 / 40W gear.
 - Under-drive the lamp because the filaments won't be at the correct temperature which will cause it to sputter. For where I live I'd put a 36/40W on 18/20W gear
 - Run it with a diode in series. This may give you that pink effect you are looking for, on one side though.

Don't run that lamp on the mains / no ballast because that may lead to the lamp potentionally exploding. Same with high power ballasts

Don't ever use a MOT without experience because they have a very high voltage 2-3kV and put out 0,5-1 amps which is more than enough to be fatal.

Have fun and don't do anything stupid

Haha I’ll be careful. Definitely not doing that crazy microwave transformer thing. What do you mean by higher wattage gear? I have a 32W t8 bulb so what would I do to put it on a higher wattage gear? May need your help on another option that I’m thinking about as well lol. I’ll just try and start with that.

You have a few options:
 - Run constantly for a while and wait. This will give it more of a natural EOL.
 - Run it the same way but constantly switch it on and off with time for it to cool down because the sputtering occurs most when it is cold.
 - Put the lamp on higher wattage gear. For where I live for a 18W / 20W I'd run it on 36 / 40W gear.
 - Under-drive the lamp because the filaments won't be at the correct temperature which will cause it to sputter. For where I live I'd put a 36/40W on 18/20W gear
 - Run it with a diode in series. This may give you that pink effect you are looking for, on one side though.

Don't run that lamp on the mains / no ballast because that may lead to the lamp potentionally exploding. Same with high power ballasts

Don't ever use a MOT without experience because they have a very high voltage 2-3kV and put out 0,5-1 amps which is more than enough to be fatal.

Have fun and don't do anything stupid

If you want to air poison or mercury starve the lamp I think giving small hits at the end pins should be OK, but I don't know if only that part will be cracked or the whole lamp. Maybe generating tiny cracks, running the tube for a while for warm it up, then blow some wind to the tube to generate a small thermic shock for generate tiny cracks.

How would I generate tiny cracks without breaking the bulb? Or are you talking about the inside of it, like I blow air on the inside of the bulb then it cracks?

If you want to air poison or mercury starve the lamp I think giving small hits at the end pins should be OK, but I don't know if only that part will be cracked or the whole lamp. Maybe generating tiny cracks, running the tube for a while for warm it up, then blow some wind to the tube to generate a small thermic shock for generate tiny cracks.

I’m mainly just trying to make it go mercury starved but not necessarily killing it. But if there’s no way to do that then I’ll eol it.

I know this works for Philips Alto's (original version, not sure about the Alto II) - if you blink them they will go 'mercury starved'...I found it out just by chance when I had an instant-start ballast that went bad...it'd still light the lamps at full brightness, but every so often it'd blink off/on.
All of that would cause the lamp to go mercury starved, and then EOL (if you caught it in time, you'd have a mercury-starved lamp, but I wouldn't expect it to have a long life)

You could put an instant-start ballast on a flasher on some sort that turns it on/off onces per minute, should have the same result, but it'd also be very bad for the ballast/might even kill it.

You could also take a standard F20 preheat ballast & FS-2 starter, wire it up in normal fashion, but put the F32 instead of a F20...it'll never light, just blink like an EOL lamp, and will also cause it to go mercury starved. But doing so will also overheat the ballast, you'd have to let it run for awhile then shut down & let the ballast fully cool off, then go again. (this may also wear out the starter)

Or the same as above...but use 2 strings of 100 mini (incandescent) Christmas lights in place of the F20 ballast (still keeping FS-2 starter - the lights are simply now your 'ballast'). No need to let anything cool off (but like above you'll probably wear out the starter) - this one might be your best/safest option.

Also for the last 2, I'm assuming you're in a 120v mains country! With 240v, a FS-4 starter, & the Christmas lights...it probably just light as if it was a "normal" setup. .LOL.