diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index c41bb10bc..85bbee144 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ var (
 	scrapeResultsQueueCapacity   = flag.Int("scrapeResultsQueueCapacity", 4096, "The size of the scrape results queue.")
 	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.")
 )
 
 func main() {
@@ -48,7 +50,7 @@ func main() {
 		log.Fatalf("Error loading configuration from %s: %v", *configFile, err)
 	}
 
-	ts, err := metric.NewTieredStorage(5000, 5000, 100, time.Second*30, time.Second*1, time.Second*20, *metricsStoragePath)
+	ts, err := metric.NewTieredStorage(uint(*memoryAppendQueueCapacity), uint(*diskAppendQueueCapacity), 100, time.Second*30, time.Second*1, time.Second*20, *metricsStoragePath)
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Fatalf("Error opening storage: %s", err)
 	}
diff --git a/storage/metric/tiered.go b/storage/metric/tiered.go
index 570da0667..d4c30d24d 100644
--- a/storage/metric/tiered.go
+++ b/storage/metric/tiered.go
@@ -166,9 +166,17 @@ func (t *tieredStorage) Serve() {
 		writeMemoryTicker = time.Tick(t.writeMemoryInterval)
 	)
 
-	for {
-		t.reportQueues()
+	go func() {
+		reportTicker := time.Tick(time.Second)
 
+		for {
+			<-reportTicker
+
+			t.reportQueues()
+		}
+	}()
+
+	for {
 		select {
 		case <-writeMemoryTicker:
 			t.writeMemory()