Renewable Sand from Dead Coral

Mining dead coral w/o silk touch should drop a sand block crafting ingredient (sand pile?)

Since sand on tropical islands consists mainly of dead coral bits, why don't we play into that by having "crushed" coral and coral fans drop a sand crafting ingredient? Combining 4 (or 9 depending on drop rate) of these in a crafting table would produce a sand block. Voila, renewable sand that makes sense and isn't overpowered.