In hydro I will never grow without silica again. From the day I started using it my plants are like night and day. Heat, light, bugs... they plough right though it. My current run is the best example yet. I don't think the temp inside the tent has gone below 85° for the last 3 days and that's including lights off. They've been eating over 800 ppm at 38 DLI with zero signs of stress and they're only 23 days old. Last week I noticed a few fungus gnats, gave them one spray of trifecta crop control and some cinnamon and haven't seen another since.
They seem so much stronger in every way on silica. Just my two cents
I used a lot more of it in DWC than anywhere else. And you got that crazy oven out back you're growing in. I would absolutely be keeping silica on hand for plants in there for several reasons lol
And it def does have lots of benefits for growing that translate Into negatives for consuming the end smoke with some plants though, even in DWC, even if the plants themselves are indeed easier to manage.
There's not many cons to silica from a growing cannabis perspective, if any at all lol, as for actual end quality, from a smokers perspective that is already familiar with all his clones though, same clone compared to same clone. Grown indoor, excess Silica has obvious and undeniable pros and cons both if compared same same clone with and without 100%. Just like everything else that exists, it has pros and cons both, there are absolutely trade offs.
Most pros are on the side of the growers of the plants. There are lots of pros for it looking at it that way. You will have less bug issues, assuming you aren't running preventative measures. It does indeed help plants take environmental extremes in stride a lot more smoothly too. It hugely strengthens stems, and all but completely removed the need for yoyos and cola ties in late flower, even from wimpy stemmed plants. It also definitely increases bag appeal for sure. There are absolutely 100% undeniable benefits to growing plants with excess supplemented silica.
But Most cons are on the side of the consumption of the flower. It's not a huge difference with most, but it does make trichomes shells thicker and stiffer and more numerous, and it makes them reflect more light so they stand out more too. But they will also fall off into kief a little easier. It doesn't seem to enhance resin content much if any though and an individual gram of straight kief from a same same clone usually burns hotter and won't hit quite as hard, while also producing a little bit less resin from the same weight of trichome. I do lots of hash washes, and dry sifts, pressing and BHO, i keep tabs on my resin yields pretty well.
As for pest and disease resistance I haven't even seen a mite or any bugs in my tents in ages. Even doing outdoor next to Indoor. I Ortho the house once a month and have never seen a single bug that wasn't a lost winter stink bug thats dead the next day in a tent since. Every bug that crosses that ortho line on the outside perimeter of the house is dead within a day whether it gets into the tent or not lol.
I'm also usually barefoot no shirt in basketball shorts when I'm out at the outdoor plants.
When I was running silica in DWC I started doing buckets with and without silica on the same clones because so many people were just racing about it like a be all end all kind of miracle nutrient.
My take is: I understand exactly why people feel that way about it, I genuinely do. But I also played with it enough with control clones and test clones in the same setups to come to some very solid conclusions about it.
Main conclusion being for indoor smoke, most of my clones produced smoke I preferred to smoke without it, even if I have to use yoyos or be religious about pest prevention. And outdoor, it changes absolutely nothing (where I live) because of the already bioavailable silica content in my natural soil here.
I definitely recommend most indoor growers play with it on their plants and see if they like using it. I do, but only in certain context personally.
The only clone i have i wouldn't run without Silica is Psychedelic Banjo, and thats because she has very wimpy stems, and a resin content off the damn charts no matter what you do. I have 13 distinct female clones atm. A plant i hav i wouldnt EVER hit with silica under any circumstances is my Maui86. When ya do, all the kief wants to fall off the buds because it spreads out her total resin content too much, shes an oldschool kiefy sativa dom as is. Silica completely destroys her smoking qualities. A grower running silica on everything would have never even noticed how good that clone actually is. Straight up. They'd assume it to be a dry, kiefy, flavorless sativa that burns to hot. It isnt though.
The journal owner's 1 part feed is already like 1-5% silica anyway i believe, id have to go look at my bag of it to quote % for sure, but i know 100% for sure silica is already in the green leaf 1 parts in levels that make a difference.
and now im working on how im going to make concentrates out of pollinated seeded out herb, probably make some sifting type screen that’ll catch keif and seeds! : ) 
not pictured is my little goofy temp sensor and that reads 82* with 68rh 