Silica Sand vs Aragonite

[MikeYQM]

I'm looking at some 00 sizes silica for a DSB and wondering how the silica would shape up vs Aragonite. As far as I can tell, appearance is similar but that doesn't say much.

[bertoni]

For the most part, it won't matter unless you intend to have certain burrowing animals. Some types of silica might in theory be abrasive enough to be an issue. Also, a silica substrate might leach some silicate for a while, although that's generally not an issue.

As far as looks, I do like the appearance of aragonite, but some silica sands might look about the same.