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i have a large african cichlid, all water conditions are fine, ive had him for 3 weeks now, but the last couple of days ive noticed he sits in one place and wiggles side to side pretty vigorously and then he will take a dive at the gravel and rub sideways on the gravel, can anyone tell me why maybe?

Thats sounds like the more traditionally described shimmying and flicking associated with either irratation from water quality issues or external parasites. Whats the species, tank perameters etc..

my tanks has been setup for 2 years now, i do have a JD and hornet cichlid whove thrived quite nicely for those 2 years, my levels of ammonia are 0 and nitrate and nitrites as well, ph is 7.4 and temp is 77

Its highly unlikely that you have a nitrate reading of 0, especially with large fish in the tank unless the tank is huge (ie over 120 gal)and planted to the absolute max and has constant water changes. Sounds like the test kit may be off, in which case it might not be reading true for ammonia or nitrite either. Whether fish lived in it before and for how long is always irrelevant , things can change chemistry wise in a few hours. In fact I wish I had pound for every time someone has told me their tank has been fine for years and then refuses to check the water again, wrongly assuming the tank perameters always stay constant. Not saying thats the case now, but it never hurts to doublecheck, especially if your test kit is as old as the tank. People forget that test kits have a shelf life, especially after being opened.

Having said that, if youre reasonably sure the tank parameters are fine and no other soluble pollutants present then your only other option is ectoparasites. Fish often flick with the onset of velvet , whitespot and various protozoan infections. Whitespot is by far the most common and the fish may start to flick well in advance of any visible spots appearing.I guess the only thing to do is observe the fish closely until you see more conclusive evidence of a cause.