diff --git a/src/FlowtideDotNet.Core/Compute/FlxValueComparer.cs b/src/FlowtideDotNet.Core/Compute/FlxValueComparer.cs
index 34fa4d797..b8339ce0f 100644
--- a/src/FlowtideDotNet.Core/Compute/FlxValueComparer.cs
+++ b/src/FlowtideDotNet.Core/Compute/FlxValueComparer.cs
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ public static int CompareTo(FlxValue a, FlxValue b)
                 // Check for string comparison
                 if (a.ValueType == FlexBuffers.Type.String)
                 {
-                    return string.Compare(a.AsString, b.AsString);
+                    return FlxString.Compare(a.AsFlxString, b.AsFlxString);
                 }
                 if (a.ValueType == FlexBuffers.Type.Int)
                 {
diff --git a/src/FlowtideDotNet.Core/Flexbuffer/FlxValue.cs b/src/FlowtideDotNet.Core/Flexbuffer/FlxValue.cs
index 10a098d49..3d2692af3 100644
--- a/src/FlowtideDotNet.Core/Flexbuffer/FlxValue.cs
+++ b/src/FlowtideDotNet.Core/Flexbuffer/FlxValue.cs
@@ -297,7 +297,38 @@ public bool AsBool
                 throw new Exception($"Type {_type} is not convertible to bool");
             }
         }
-        
+
+        public FlxString AsFlxString
+        {
+            get
+            {
+                var span = _buffer.Span;
+                if (_type == Type.String)
+                {
+                    var indirectOffset = ComputeIndirectOffset(span, _offset, _parentWidth);
+                    var size = (int)ReadULong(span, indirectOffset - _byteWidth, _byteWidth);
+                    var sizeWidth = (int)_byteWidth;
+                    while (span[indirectOffset + size] != 0)
+                    {
+                        sizeWidth <<= 1;
+                        size = (int)ReadULong(span, indirectOffset - sizeWidth, (byte)sizeWidth);
+                    }
+                    return new FlxString(span.Slice(indirectOffset, size));
+                }
+                if (_type == Type.Key)
+                {
+                    var indirectOffset = ComputeIndirectOffset(span, _offset, _parentWidth);
+                    var size = 0;
+                    while (indirectOffset + size < _buffer.Length && span[indirectOffset + size] != 0)
+                    {
+                        size++;
+                    }
+                    return new FlxString(span.Slice(indirectOffset, size));
+                }
+                throw new InvalidOperationException("Can only be used on strings");
+            }
+        }
+
         public string AsString
         {
             get
diff --git a/src/FlowtideDotNet.Storage/Tree/BPlusTreeOptions.cs b/src/FlowtideDotNet.Storage/Tree/BPlusTreeOptions.cs
index 8e941c4c9..182ac4eaf 100644
--- a/src/FlowtideDotNet.Storage/Tree/BPlusTreeOptions.cs
+++ b/src/FlowtideDotNet.Storage/Tree/BPlusTreeOptions.cs
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ namespace FlowtideDotNet.Storage.Tree
 {
     public class BPlusTreeOptions<K, V>
     {
-        public int BucketSize { get; set; } = 256;
+        public int BucketSize { get; set; } = 64;
 
         public required IComparer<K> Comparer { get; set; }