Not sure I wired my Ballast right

Well I won a 400 watt hps electronic ballast on ebay (brand new). I wired it myself, but I'm not sure if it's cranking at full power though. How can you tell if your ballast is at full power? The reason I'm asking is because people keep telling me I should be having heat issues with my grow box and I don't. Does anyone know how to wire a ballast? It's a 120v, 400 watt ballast. When I wired it I connected the three cables together, but I'm not sure if I was supposed to connect the ground cable also. Is anyone here electronics savy? Please help me out.

if it lights up, you wired it correctly

Wow I feel dumb haha, but aren't there such things as like shorts and other malfunctions that occur? I heard that if you short the ballast it will only run at 50% power. Well my eye's kinds hurt if I look at the bulb for more than a second, is that an indicator of proper wattage?