I did a lot of reading about t5s as well and made the switch to them from vho bulbs. I really like the t5s, they run about the same temperature as the vhos, not really much hotter, and are way brighter and use less energy. I used the
ice cap ballast that I already had so I only needed to buy endcaps, bulbs, and reflectors. The cost of endcaps are about $10, bulbs are about $20 and reflectors are about $24. It was time to change my vho bulbs already so I didn't really count that as a cost to switch to t5 bulbs. Keep in mind that the t5s will last approximately 2 years for the daylight bulbs and about 18 months for the actinics so you don't need to replace them as often as the vhos. Whiskey is right in that the key is the
parabolic reflectors, you have to get them to see the benefits of the t5 bulbs, otherwise, they're probably not much better than regular vhos or pcs. For smaller tanks (less than 120), t5s are probably are more efficient and less expensive choice than halides, but that's JMHO.
