I actually have a similar setup to yours, I just got it up last fall. I can't get electricity out there either (was told otherwise when I put it up :/ ), so right now I'm thinking of trying one of the battery ones (if I can get one here) and just running it in the late morning - afternoon.
I'm also going to try to come up with some sort of 'siphon waterfall' thingy, but I've no idea what I'm doing, LOL, so I'll let you know how it goes.
I have 2 comets and 2 minnows in mine, so far they seem to be doing good, I threw in some anachris in the fall (I also planted some lily and iris planters I got at Lowes for $1 ea!, but they didn't have time to grow last year, I hope they are still alive, I saved a couple just in case. I'm hoping to work on it this weekend. Their water is green right now, I think they are eating that. They ate the anachris fairly fast and the rest rotted, but I didn't float mine, that's probably why. Just for the heck of it I tried throwing in one of those packs of various bulbs they have at petsmart (onion, lily, apogetons) the onion floated up in a water change, but grew great floating lol! I never could get those onions to grow in my tank. It got flash frozen last year but it's not entirely soggy so I didn't take it out yet, I think it might still have some life in it, we'll see.