Particular custom particle wont appear in main comp

So this has been driving me nuts all day. I made a comp alot like the nano tutorial, and all was good in the comp, but then i realized that the flight of my emitter light was not correct on the z space to wrap around my 3d text in my main comp... i recreated this "comet" like particular effect in my main comp so i can properly adjust its z space animation. For some reason... when i select custom and assign my comp for it the comet disappears. If i select a preset like sphere or cloudlet its fine but for custom it totally disappears. (note. i am also obscuring the particualr comet path with my 3d text layer) Can someone please shed some light as to why this custom particle wont show up?