diff --git a/cmd/tesseract/posix/main.go b/cmd/tesseract/posix/main.go
index 97bdf3a3..5135416f 100644
--- a/cmd/tesseract/posix/main.go
+++ b/cmd/tesseract/posix/main.go
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/dgraph-io/badger/v4"
+	"github.com/dgraph-io/badger/v4/options"
 	"github.com/dustin/go-humanize"
 	"github.com/transparency-dev/tessera"
 	tposix "github.com/transparency-dev/tessera/storage/posix"
@@ -100,9 +101,12 @@ var (
 	clientHTTPMaxIdlePerHost    = flag.Int("client_http_max_idle_per_host", 10, "Maximum number of idle HTTP connections per host for outgoing requests.")
 	garbageCollectionInterval   = flag.Duration("garbage_collection_interval", 10*time.Second, "Interval between scans to remove obsolete partial tiles and entry bundles. Set to 0 to disable.")
 	antispamBatchSize           = flag.Uint("antispam_batch_size", 10000, "Maximum number of antispam rows to insert per batch update.")
-	antispamBlockCacheSize      = flag.String("antispam_block_cache_size", "768MB", "Amount of RAM to allocate for antispam block cache, set to zero to disable.")
+	antispamBlockCacheSize      = flag.String("antispam_block_cache_size", "0MB", "Amount of RAM to allocate for antispam block cache, set to zero to disable. Default disabled since compression is off.")
 	antispamIndexCacheSize      = flag.String("antispam_index_cache_size", "768MB", "Amount of RAM to allocate for antispam index cache, set to zero for unlimited.")
 	antispamCompactionInterval  = flag.Duration("antispam_compaction_interval", tposix_as.DefaultCompactionInterval, "Interval between GC/compaction runs on the antispam index.")
+	antispamNumCompactors       = flag.Int("antispam_num_compactors", 2, "Number of BadgerDB compactors to run.")
+	antispamMemTableSize        = flag.Int64("antispam_mem_table_size", 256<<20, "Size of BadgerDB memtables.")
+	antispamBaseTableSize       = flag.Int64("antispam_base_table_size", 16<<20, "Size of BadgerDB base tables.")
 	awaiterPollInterval         = flag.Duration("awaiter_poll_interval", storage.DefaultAwaiterPollInterval, "Interval between two checkpoint polls by the awaiter. Used for antispam, and if enable_publication_awaiter is set, to block add-* requests responses. Must be strictly positive or defaults to DefaultAwaiterPollInterval.")
 
 	// Infrastructure setup flags
@@ -245,6 +249,10 @@ func newStorage(ctx context.Context, signer note.Signer) (st *storage.CTStorage,
 		CompactionInterval: *antispamCompactionInterval,
 		BadgerOptions: func(o badger.Options) badger.Options {
 			return o.
+				WithCompression(options.None).				// Off as this appears to cause memory issues when compacting large indices.
+				WithMemTableSize(*antispamMemTableSize).	// Default tunes memtables for high write throughput
+				WithBaseTableSize(*antispamBaseTableSize).	// Default tunes to reduce file count
+				WithNumCompactors(*antispamNumCompactors).	// Default tunes to be able keep up with high throughput of LSM merges
 				WithIndexCacheSize(int64(antispamIndexCacheBytes)).
 				WithBlockCacheSize(int64(antispamBlockCacheBytes))
 		},