Hello; From personal experience I have tried construction sand simply because i had a pile around. The plants did not do well. I think it was too fine grained and may have compacted too much for the rooted plants. It was however fine for my pair of Kirbensus cichlids. They found it good to dig into.
The other issue with fine grained substrate is the problem with toxins which can accumulate. Seems the sand can form anerobic pockets in which bacteria can thrive and produce toxic byproducts. Reports on this in this forum.
A way around this if you wish to use sand is to DRY SIFT it with a screen. I made such a screen with 2x4's and screen wire. Got rid of the dust and finer sand particles. I could come up with various grain sizes.