My very own swamp!

I admit it, I have been neglecting my fish tanks. They just usually run themselves so well by themselves now that I try not to mess with them. (that's my story and I am sticking to it)
Thanksgiving weekend, my planted tank finally turned into a swamp. It quickly proceeded to turn septic, killing all the fish in it. Katie came down this weekend to the most aweful stench!
I had cleaned the tank on Friday before she arrived, and it is just finally clearing up today. I give full credit to 2 Eheim canister filters, one set up for filtering (no charcoal even with this disaster), and the other to water conditioning (and light filtering) combined with my CO2 reactor uncapped so it sucked in normal air and nocked out the protien ( I am assuming that is all the white foam that formed in it is).
What happened is this surface plant, moneywort I think it is, grew so well, it sufficated off the rest of the tank underneith. Combined with one of the lights being plugged in for nearly a week straight while I was out for thanksgiving, it killed the rest of the tank off. Oohps. Time to either finish my computer programmed light controller box or invest in a timer with a ground plug so I can plug in my big aquarium lights into it.

It truly did smell like one of those, vile, evil smelling swamps. How many of you keep a pet swamp inches from your bed? Plants climbing out of it and everything - some where already about 3 feet from the tank behind the bed!