diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 4f8daf8da..2c6a310aa 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ var (
 	ruleResultsQueueCapacity     = flag.Int("ruleResultsQueueCapacity", 4096, "The size of the rule results queue.")
 	concurrentRetrievalAllowance = flag.Int("concurrentRetrievalAllowance", 15, "The number of concurrent metrics retrieval requests allowed.")
 	diskAppendQueueCapacity      = flag.Int("queue.diskAppendCapacity", 1000000, "The size of the queue for items that are pending writing to disk.")
-	memoryAppendQueueCapacity    = flag.Int("queue.memoryAppendCapacity", 1000000, "The size of the queue for items that are pending writing to memory.")
+	memoryAppendQueueCapacity    = flag.Int("queue.memoryAppendCapacity", 10000, "The size of the queue for items that are pending writing to memory.")
 )
 
 type prometheus struct {
diff --git a/storage/metric/test_helper.go b/storage/metric/test_helper.go
index c3428425b..f1b5ec22b 100644
--- a/storage/metric/test_helper.go
+++ b/storage/metric/test_helper.go
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ var (
 )
 
 const (
-	appendQueueSize = 1000
+	appendQueueSize = 100
 )
 
 func testAppendSample(p MetricPersistence, s model.Sample, t test.Tester) {